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| Judgement day closes in on '93 blasts accused | | |
Mumbai, Aug 9: A special court will Thursday begin pronouncing its verdict in the Mumbai serial bombings case, 13 years after 13 explosions killed 257 people and injured about 700 March 11, 1993.
The designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court of P.D. Kode, set up in the aftermath of the strikes, examined 686 witnesses and recorded 14,000 pages of evidence. It will deliver the verdict at the Arthur Road Jail in central Mumbai.
However, if the arrested mobster Abu Salem's (one of the accused) plea to the Supreme Court to have his trial clubbed with the 123 other accused is admitted, Thursday's verdict may have to be postponed, officials say.
At the moment, Salem is to be tried separately.
The Mumbai Police will barricade and cordon off the entire court area where around 100 policemen will be deployed and vehicular traffic will be diverted to other roads on Thursday.
The case involves a total of 123 accused of which 86 are out on bail, including Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt - son of late actor and former central minister Sunil Dutt and brother of current member of parliament Priya Dutt.
Authorities had alleged the blasts were carried out at the behest of the Pakistan intelligence agency - Inter Service Intelligence - as an act of revenge for the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya Dec 6, 1992 and the following communal violence in Mumbai.
The outrageous act of terror that has seen a string of similar though smaller scale incidents in the city subsequently had allegedly seen the active involvement of mob boss Dawood Ibrahim, now said to be in Pakistan, and his aides Tiger Memon and Mohammed Dossa.
Both Dawood and Memon are absconding even though Interpol red-corner notices have been issued against them.
The probe has been carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since November 1993.
Two of the accused - Salem and Yakub Memon - are currently in custody, while 23 other accused - including Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abu Asim Azmi - had been discharged.
According to officials the idea behind the blast was to cripple the country's economy - as represented by Mumbai where the blasts ripped through busy locations like the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air-India building, hotel Sea Rock, Hotel Centaur Juhu, Hotel Centaur Airport, Zaveri Bazaar, Katha Bazaar and Century Bazaar.
The CBI had alleged Sanjay Dutt had received a consignment of three AK-56 rifles, 25 hand grenades, one 9 mm pistol and cartridges from Salem and his men went to Dutt's house Jan 16, 1993 to hand them over. |
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