The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday granted bail to four of the five convicts who had sought suspension of sentence awarded to them for attacking Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on February 2, 2008.
Those who had been granted bails are Gurinder Singh,
Hoshiar Singh, Dharminder Singh and Jaswant Singh, all sentenced to five-year imprisonment.
However, the fifth accused, Mohinder Singh, was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment.
Though the dera head had escaped unhurt, his two followers had sustained injuries after the assailants missed the target vehicle while throwing a bomb.
The Karnal district court on September 12 had held a Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist, Bakhshish Singh alias Baba, and six others guilty of an attempt to kill the dera head. The court had also sentenced Bakhshish, Swaran Singh and Mohinder Singh to 10-year imprisonment under Section 3 of the Explosive Substances Act.
The bail to the four accused was mainly granted on the ground that they were not caught from the spot and their appeal might take a lot of time for decision in the court.
Also, appearing for the petitioners, advocate Vijay Kumar Jindal informed the bench that all convicts had undergone around four years and nine months of sentence till date.
On February 2, 2008, the dera head had visited the Ambala court for proceedings in a criminal case and when his fleet of vehicles reached near Manak Majra village on the GT road, a truck was moving ahead of the fleet.
When the fleet tried to overtake the truck, an explosion took place, leaving many vehicles damaged and two dera followers injured.
Later, the dera followers had overpowered truck driver Mohinder Singh and Swaran Singh, who were allegedly responsible for the explosion.