Nellore: Court dismisses pressure cooker bomb blast case on court

Nellore: Principal Assistant Sessions Judge's Court dismissed a case related to an explosive device planted in a pressure cooker on the court premises in 2016 as the prosecution failed to prove the charges against the accused effectively. Principal Assistant Sessions Court Judge K P Balaji pronounced the verdict in this regard on Monday.

On September 12, 2016, an explosive device planted in a pressure cooker exploded on the court premises and police charged that al-Ummah was believed to be behind the blast in the incident. They thought this blast was similar to that of blasts in the court premises of Chittoor, Kollam in Kerala and Puducherry.

Nellore district has never witnessed such an explosion in the past. District police officials thought that there was a very low-level explosion, and the bomb capacity was also negligible. In the incident, three persons were injured and several vehicles parked near the court compound wall were damaged.

A team comprising state-level Intelligence Bureau officials thoroughly inspected the blast site and they examined the fragments of the pressure cooker and other material used for blast. Subsequently, Chittoor CCS DSP Ramakrishna also visited the city and inspected the blast site as a similar blast had also occurred in Chittoor district court premises earlier.

They arrested Abbas Ali, Dawood Suleman, Samson, Mohammad Ayub and Shamshuddin and the Judge acquitted them from the charges.