Mumbai, July 27: A special POTA court here on Monday convicted all three accused in the 2003 Mumbai twin blasts case that killed 52 persons and injured 100 others.
The court convicted Ashrat Shafique Ansari (32), Mohammed Hanif Sayed (46) and his wife Fehmida Sayed (43) for murder and conspiracy under Sections 302, 307, 427 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code besides being found guilty under Section three of POTA.
The court of Special Judge MR Puranik said it will hear on August 4 the arguments of the defence and the prosecution regarding the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the convicted persons.
The convicts listened carefully to the judge while the verdict was being pronounced and remained silent.
The trial in the case carried on for six years and today’s judgment is the biggest in a terror-related case in Mumbai after the conviction of 100 accused in the 1993 serial blasts case by a special TADA court in 2007.
The Sayeds’ minor daughter Farheen, though involved in the twin bombings, was not charged under POTA and was discharged from the case a few years ago, said defence lawyer S. Kunjuraman.
Two other accused in the case, Rizwan Laddowala and A. Shaikh Batterywala, were acquitted by the Supreme Court for lack of evidence after a POTA review committee had recommended their discharge. The duo was accused of connecting the timer with the detonator and of preparing the other electrical circuits used in the deadly bombs.
On August 25, 2003 two blasts had rocked the Gateway of India and the busy Zaveri Bazaar in South Mumbai. The blasts were carried out by a terror module of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit.
Revealing the details of the case, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said that one of the co-conspirator, whose identity has been withheld, had turned approver and his deposition was clinching in the court.
The approver had spilled the beans about the conspiracy and the way in which the crime was committed.
The other key prosecution witness was the taxi driver whose vehicle was used to plant the bomb at Gateway of India. Police had claimed that it was the driver who led them to the residence of the accused.
Nikam said, “The initial criminal conspiracy was hatched in Dubai by a LeT mastermind, accused Haneef, Nasir and the approver.”
Of the conspirators, apart from Haneef and the approver have been tried in the court, while Nasir, who belonged to Hyderabad, was absconding and later shot dead by the police in an encounter on September 12, 2003, near Matunga.
Given further details of the plot to terrorise India’s financial capital, Nikam said that the accused had first planted a bomb in a bus on December 2, 2002 but it turned out to be a failure.
Then on July 28, 2003, they planted another bomb in a BEST bus that exploded in Ghatkopar killing two.
“But they were not happy with such low intensity explosions so they carried out the twin bomb blast on August 25 that left 52 dead and more than 100 injured,” Nikam said.
–Agencies–