A special NIA court in Lucknow on Monday sentenced to death a man convicted for attacking the security personnel outside the Gorakhnath temple. Ahmed Murtaza Abbasi, a 30-year-old IIT graduate, was sentenced on charges of UAPA, waging war against the country and murderous attack.
Abbasi was convicted on Saturday by Special Judge Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi after 60 days of continuous hearing.
According to an FIR lodged at the Gorakhnath police station on April 4, 2022 on the basis of a complaint from Vinay Kumar Mishra, Abbasi tried to forcibly enter the Gorakhnath temple premises on April 3 and attacked the security personnel deployed there with a sickle, injuring two Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) constables.
After this, he started raising religious slogans while waving arms. He was overpowered by the security personnel and subsequently, arrested.
During the investigation conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad, weapons, laptops and material written in Urdu were recovered from him.
A resident of the Civil Lines area of Gorakhpur, Abbasi has studied chemical engineering in Mumbai in 2015. His family had shifted to Gorakhpur in 2020. Abbasi’s father, Muneer Ahmed, had said that his son is mentally unstable.
