Patna, May 25 : A Bihar court on Friday convicted all the five accused in the 2013 serial blasts that rocked Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi temple.

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court headed by Judge Manoj Kumar Sinha delivered the verdict.

"The five persons -- Umer Siddiqui, Azharuddin Siddiqui, Hauser Ali, Mujibullah Ansari, Imtitaz Ansari -- were convicted by the court after the hearing was completed," NIA lawyer Lalan Kumar Sinha told reporters here.

The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on May 31.

The NIA said the blasts on July 7, 2013, were carried out with an intention to kill domestic and foreign pilgrims, especially Buddhists in order to create terror at a place of worship.The blasts injured five people including two monks. No casualties were reported.

The Bodh Gaya temple is a Unesco World Heritage site. The Buddha attained enlightenment around 2,500 years ago.

As many as 13 bombs were planted, out of which nine or 10 exploded while three live bombs were defused.

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BENGALURU: Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara on Monday alleged Electronic Voting Machine manipulations led to the defeat of Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in just concluded assembly polls in Maharashtra.

While speaking to reporters here on Monday, he said the BJP does selective manipulations to convince people that there were no wrongdoings. He also wanted to go back to the paper ballots system.

The ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra won a landslide victory in the assembly elections, shattering the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi's dream to wrest power. The BJP won the highest ever 132 seats for the party, while the Shiv Sena led by Shinde bagged 57 seats and NCP won 41 seats to take the Mahayuti total to 230 seats. Congress as part of MVA won just 16 seats.

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"We analysed the Maharashtra poll outcome deeply. We felt that in many places EVMs were manipulated," Parameshwara said. He also said an obvious question would be why not it happened in Jharkhand and elsewhere. The manipulations are done selectively so that no one can question it, he blamed.

According to him, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is a leading partner. Had the Congress been the leading partner, things would have changed. He backed the ballot papers saying that the same was discussed in Maharashtra Congress as well.

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