Court convicts 4 for '93 Mumbai bombings
Reuters, Mumbai
An Indian court yesterday found four members of a Muslim family, including a woman, guilty in the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people, the first convictions in one of the world's longest trials. The Mumbai court found three other members of the Memon family accused in the case not guilty, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters. The verdicts against the remaining 116 defendants, including Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, would be handed down in batches in the coming weeks, Nikam quoted judge PD Kode as saying. Sentencing will be announced after all the verdicts are delivered. The Memons were among the main accused in the case. The court had been due to deliver its judgment last month but put it off until Tuesday. The series of 13 blasts in the country's financial hub, with targets including the Bombay Stock Exchange building, a cinema hall and a busy market, were the deadliest bomb attacks in India. The trial, held in a court located inside a prison complex for security reasons, opened in 1994, but hearings began in earnest only the following year. A total of 686 witnesses have been heard over more than a decade.
|
Indian policemen escort actor Sanjay Dutt as he comes out of the Terrorist And Disruptive Activities (Protection) Act (Tada) court during the first day of verdicts in the 1993 bomb attacks case in Mumbai yesterday. Three brothers of an alleged kingpin behind serial blasts in India's economic capital in 1993 that killed 257 people were convicted for their role in the attacks. Dutt, who is accused of receiving a gun from alleged plotters, faces a minimum of five years in jail if found guilty, his lawyer said. PHOTO: AFP |
