Lifer for Bleach, Latvians in Purulia armsdrop case

CALCUTTA, FEBRUARY 2: In a significant judgement, the city civil and sessions court, Calcutta, today sentenced British national Peter Blea...

CALCUTTA, FEBRUARY 2: In a significant judgement, the city civil and sessions court, Calcutta, today sentenced British national Peter Bleach and five Latvians to rigorous imprisonment for life and fined them Rs 25,000 each on the charge of conspiring to wage war against the state in the sensational Purulia armsdrop case.

Pronouncing the sentence after their conviction on Monday under provisions of section 121-A of the Indian Penal Code, the court’s fourth bench judge P K Biswas described the case as “rarest of the rare” and a clear case of putting the safety and security of the country at stake.

The judge observed that the convicts did not deserve sympathy or leniency and said that this was for the first time that a crime of this nature was committed as part of a “concerted design” to disrupt public order and wreak havoc in the country.

“I find that the convicts were involved in an international conspiracy for procurement of huge cache of arms and ammunition for various insurgent groups of India to help them overthrow and overwhelm the elected government of West Bengal,” the judge observed.

Elaborate security arrangements were made inside the court room which was packed to capacity with lawyers, along with newspersons from the domestic and international media.

After the court rose, Bleach and the counsels for the Latvians told mediapersons they would challenge the judgement in the Calcutta high court.

Bleach and Lativians Igor Timmerman, Igor Moskvitin, Oleg Gaidach, Alexander Klichin and Evgueny Antimenko, were also sentenced to seven years’ RI and a fine of Rs 10,000 each under section 25 (1-A) of the Arms Act, 1959, besides two years’ RI and fine of Rs 5,000 each under 25 (1-B) (F) and (G) of the act.

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Besides, they were sentenced to two years’ RI under section 9B(2) of the Explosives Act, 1884, along with 10 years’ RI and fine of Rs 15,000 each under section five of the Explosives Substances Act, 1908.

They were also sentenced them to one year RI and fine of Rs 3,000 each under section 10 of the Aircraft Act, 1934, besides simple imprisonment of three months under section 11 and three months RI under section 11-A of the same act.

All the sentences would run concurrently, he said.

The judge ordered that the Russian AN-26 aircraft, alongwith the recovered arms and ammunition be confiscated and kept in custody of the state for inspection and exhibition as and when required.