A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kerala on Friday sentenced 10 people to eight years in jail for chopping off the right palm of a college professor for preparing a question paper that allegedly contained blasphemous references against Prophet Mohammed.
Last week, the court had found 13 people guilty in the case. Three other accused would be getting a two-year jail term. Besides imprisonment the accused would also have to pay a fine of Rs 8 lakh to the teacher.
The accused were also slapped with charges for attempt to murder, conspiracy and sedition.
"All the 10 people are sentenced maximum up to 8 years. So, the people who allegedly conspired were given the same punishment," said the lawyer of the accused, P.C. Naushad.
T.J. Joseph, a lecturer of Malayalam literature at Newman College in Thodupuzha, was allegedly attacked by activists of Muslim outfit 'Popular Front of India' in July 2010 and the palm of his right hand was chopped off.
Despite widespread condemnation the incident evoked, the college dismissed Joseph from his job for breach of discipline while he was recuperating in a hospital.
He was arrested in April 2010 after some Muslim groups claimed that he insulted the Prophet, thus hurting religious sentiments of the Muslims. However, a court had given him a clean chit in the case.