Gauhati High Court Upholds Life Sentence Of Former NDFB Chief Ranjan Daimari

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court today upheld the life imprisonment sentence of NDFB Spearhead Ranjan Daimari in the 2008 Assam serial blasts case which killed more than 88 people and crippled more than 500 others. The blasts were conducted in four cities of Assam, viz, Gauhati, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, and Barpeta. 

Daimari was earlier found guilty of planning the 2008 blasts in 2019 by a special court in Gauhati. Daimari was the mastermind of one of the most inhuman attacks in the land of Assam which has gone into the annals of Assam's history as one of its darkest chapters. 

Daimari was on an on-again, off-again trail to the prison as he was granted bail in 2020 for four weeks to take part in the Bodo peace talks. He along with the other nine that were convicted moved to the Gauhati High Court last year in April and sought a suspension of their sentence which the top court denied. 

After the blasts, the Assam Police issued red alerts for Daimari, and after a two-year-long search, Daimari was apprehended by a team of Bangladesh Rifles in Bangladesh following which he was handed over to Indian custody.

Daimari was active for more than two decades until 2010 when he was nabbed in Bangladesh. Daimari created a web of connections that was spread over the neighboring counties like Bangladesh and Myanmar and he was supplied arms and ammunition for his now outfit NDFB. 

NDFB after Daimari's arrest broke into three factions and the largest one is headed by Govinda Basumatary who signed the ceasefire agreement with the Indian government in 2020. The smallest of these three factions which opposes the peace treaty signed by NDFB and the Indian government has camps in the northern Saigang division of Myanmar. 

Notably, the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) demanded the early release of Ranjan Daimary earlier this year. 

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