6 convicted for 2004 Dhemaji blast, Ulfa chief goes scot-free

Guwahati: Despite the public confession of his involvement in the gruesome killing of school children in 2004, the name of outlawed Ulfa-I commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah doesn’t figure in the case in which a district court on Thursday delivered judgment, awarding life term to four and four-year jail term to two of the accused in the Dhemaji bomb blast case. The judgment came after 15 years of the bombing carried out by the Ulfa, killing 17 children including nine girls on August 15, 2004 at Dhemaji.

In what has come as biggest surprise for the aggrieved family members of the children killed in the blast, the main conspirator of the bomb blast, Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, was allowed to go scot-free. The Assam police had filed the charge-sheet in the case in 2011.

On the morning of August 15, 2004, as children and a few parents gathered to celebrate Independence Day, a bomb went off in Dhemaji College situated on the North Bank of the Brahmaputra river. 17 schoolchildren, including nine girls, were killed and many more sustained injuries.

In its judgment Dhemaji district and session judge has acquitted eight accused and six have been declared proclaimed offender.

“Six accused have been convicted today. Four of them have been awarded life sentence while two have been sentenced to four years. Eight others have been acquitted,” said V. V. Rakesh Reddy P., superintendent of police in Dhemaji, adding, the main accused and Ulfa-I cadre Rashid Bharali is still at large.

On the morning of August 15, 2004, as children and a few parents gathered to celebrate Independence Day, a bomb went off in Dhemaji College situated on the North Bank of the Brahmaputra river. 17 schoolchildren, including nine girls, were killed and many more sustained injuries.