News headlines


PTI

Mumbai, Jul 19: Three men who planted bombs during the 1993 serial blasts here were today sentenced to death by the special TADA court, taking the number of persons awarded capital punishment to six.

Judge PD Kode sentenced Asghar Mukadam, a former employee of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon, and Shahnawaz Qureshi to death for parking a van filled with RDX at Plaza Cinema in central Mumbai.

The explosion killed 10 people, injured 36 and damaged property worth Rs 87 lakh.

Mukadam's cousin Shoaib Ghansar, who parked a RDX-filled scooter at busy Zaveri Bazaar that killed 17 people and injured 57, too was sentenced to death by the court on the counts of murder and participating in a terrorist act.

The court has so far sentenced 84 of the 100 people convicted for the serial blasts in the financial capital.

The first three death sentences, including that of Abdul Gani Turk who planted a bomb in Worli that killed 113 people, were handed down by the special court on Wednesday.

Fourteen people have been given life imprisonment and 16 convicts, including actor Sanjay Dutt, found guilty of illegally possessing arms, are yet to be sentenced.

Twelve blasts on March 12, 1993 killed 257 people and injured over 700.

Ghansar, however, was given life imprisonment on the charge of conspiracy for 'not being a member of the conspiracy'.

Judge Kode observed that Mukadam had dragged Ghansar into the conspiracy a day before the blasts, but said no leniency could be shown on the charges of causing death and committing a terrorist act.

Both Qureshi and Mukadam were sentenced to death on three counts each.

Mukadam was also convicted for ferrying three other accused carrying suitcase bombs to five star hotels in the city.

Qureshi had also been convicted by the court for illegally travelling to Pakistan, where he received training in handling arms and explosives.

Earlier report:

Three Given Death Sentence in 1993 Mumbai Blasts 

The Hindustan Times

Mumbai, Jul 18: The special TADA court on Wednesday awarded the death sentence for the first time to three men convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

In a first for the marathon trial and for special TADA judge Pramod Kode, Parvez Nazir Shaikh, 40, Abdul Gani Ismail Turk, 52, and Mushtaq Tarani, 41, have been sentenced to death.

Convicted for actively participating in the blast conspiracy, their sentence will be confirmed by the Supreme Court.

All three men have been held without bail for over 14 years. The bombs, the three planted at Century Bazaar in Worli, and at Centaur and Sea Rock hotels, claimed the lives of 93 people on March 12, 1993.

Stunned by the death sentences, they broke down as they embraced family members outside the court. Judge Kode only had strong words for the three men. "Acts of these people were not aimed at taking revenge for the atrocities committed on Muslims during the communal riots of 1992-93," he said.

"The acts committed by them have been a disgrace to Islam and the Muslim community… Their plea for lesser punishment stating that their acts were prompted by the demolition of Babri Masjid is negative. None of these convicts were personally affected in the demolition's aftermath. These convicts murdered those people who were innocent, had done no harm to the convicts," he said.

All three have said they will appeal in the Supreme Court.


That fateful day

The 1993 bombings were a series of thirteen bomb blasts that took place in Bombay (now Mumbai), on March 12, 1993. The coordinated attacks were the most destructive bomb explosions in the history of India. The single-day attacks resulted in over 250 civilian deaths and 700 injuries. The attacks are suspected to have been coordinated by notorious underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. It is believed that the attacks were carried out in retaliation for the destruction of the historic Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, which resulted in nationwide riots that led to the deaths of hundreds of Muslims and Hindus.

  

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Comment on this article

  • Sameer KM, Mangalore

    Mon, Jul 23 2007

    Mr Ananda is completely off track when he mentions that the Mumbai riots cases are ongoing in a court of law. I wish what he said was true. The Srikrishna repoort, which indicted quite a few Shiv Sena/ BJP politicians and quite a few police officers has been given an official burial. All Mumbai riot cases have been buried and no one has been convicted, which is astounding considering that over a thousand deaths occured even by official estimates. More importantly, no one ever will be punished - the cases no longer exist. I humbly request the reader to get his facts right before he makes sweeping comments on the issue. While the reader is right that Congress leaders have been charged in the 1984 riot cases, leaders like Bhagat and Sajjan kumar had to at least go through the due process of the law and attend court hearings (unfortunately, they were acquitted in the end). I completely agree with Mr. Ananda here when he says the guilty should be punished. However, even the congress did not nominate them for elections until the judgement was given. The politicians accused in the Mumbai and Gujarat riots not only have no cases against them, but have even been elected and roam around as if nothing happened. They never had to face a court of law. Meanwhile, Lalu being involved in the Bhagalpur riots is indeed news to me, and is an incorrect statement - Jagannath Mishra of the Congress was in power in Bihar then. Lalu does not hail from the place, nor was any such charge made at any time against him. In fact, Bhagalpur and other riots were major election issue when he first came to power defeating Mr. Mishra When Mr. Sathar laments about the injustice done in the Mumbai riots when the blasts cases are mentioned, I completely agree, as both seem to be closely linked. After Gujarat happened, people see a pattern where the accused in most riots have gone scot free, and leaders of a particular group get away after perpetrating worst kind of injustices. This seems to be a recurring pattern all over the country, and even small incidents in our own district have seen most perpetrators go free in many cases. Even in Gujarat, there are no cases pending against the politicians and NGOs had to fight tooth and nail to get convicitons for the Bilkis case, which is just one among thousands of such incidents. The cases pending right now form only a tiny fraction of the original. Most cases in the Gujarat riots too have been closed for reasons best known to the administration. While I do understand that all of us have our own political preferences and small prejudices, I would request people not to twist facts to present their case . The law and order machinery has been ive in meting out justice. While it indeed sounds good when we praise a system all the time, a soceity can thrive only when it allows its citizens to voice grievances and criticise its faults when it deviates from its founding principles. Certain facts are bitter to swallow, but ar

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  • Abdul Sathar, Uchil-Mangalore/Abu Dhabi

    Sat, Jul 21 2007

    1993 Bombay blast verdict has announced after 14 years, finally a kind of satisfaction for the victims and the families of the blast. But when the victims of post Babri Masjid demolition riot, carnage of post Godhra incident will get justice.

    Mr. Modi’s fanatic principle is responsible for the carnage and still victims deprived from basic rights and living in inhuman condition (Media report) in addition to that Gujarath government honored by giving undue favor to the officers who are responsible for the carnage. Those officers deliberately turned down from exercising thier power under law.

    The Sri Krishana commission report putrid in the shelves of government office. As far as divisive politics existing in our country justice is a mere dream to a certain category of citizens (I mean not on religious basis, but in general).

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