New-Delhi, 21st March: The Supreme Court sustains one death sentence in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The Supreme Court verdict on 1993 Mumbai blasts on Thursday will be keenly watched by Bollywood as fate of one of its superstars Sanjay Dutt, will be decided.
Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to six year jail term by a TADA court and the SC verdict will come today. The Supreme Court also commuted death sentence of 10 other convicts to life imprisonment.
The apex court will pronounce its verdict on a bunch of appeals and cross-appeals filed by and against 100 people including Dutt who were convicted by the special TADA court in 2006.
The apex court commuted the death sentences on the ground that the convicts were behind bars for 20 years and their economic condition was weak.
Mentioning Pakistan’s role in the blasts, the court said that the ‘training of convicts in Pakistan materialised in 1993 blasts.”.
Management and conspiracy of 1993 blasts were done by Dawood Ibrahim and others in Pakistan, the court said.
The accused were trained in bomb making and to handle sophisticated weapons in Pakistan, the Supreme Court said, also mentioning that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI was also involved in the 1993 blasts.
Having already spent 18 months behind bars during the trial, Dutt, 53, would have to undergo the rest of the sentence if the Supreme Court upholds the TADA court’s verdict.
The Veteran actor Sanjay Dutt was convicted in November 2006 for illegal possession of a 9mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle but was acquitted of more serious charges of criminal conspiracy under the now defunct anti-terror TADA.
After a marathon 10-month-long hearing beginning November 1, 2011, the Supreme Court had in August 2012 reserved its verdict on appeals and cross-appeals in the 1993 Mumbai serial terror bombing case in which 257 people were killed and 713 were injured.
On March 12, 1993, Mumbai was rocked by a series of blasts, engineered by fundamentalist elements, which also damaged property worth over Rs 27 crore.
Bureau Report
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