IndiaPost.com - 1993 Mumbai blasts: Five get 3 yrs RI

MUMBAI: Handing over the first sentences in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, the TADA court on Friday awarded five persons three years rigorous imprisonment after they were convicted for bringing RDX, hand grenades and guns into the country at Raigad coast.

Slapping a fine of Rs 25,000 on each of them, the court ordered that they will have to undergo another six months' imprisonment if the fine is not paid. Since two of them--Rashid Alware and Sharif Khan Adhikari--have already undergone more than three years' jail term as under trials, they would be released as soon as they pay up the fine, their lawyers said.

Yeshwant Nago Bhoiknar, Abbas Shaikhdhare and Shahjehan Shaikhdhare were involved in bringing in their trawlers RDX, hand-grenades and weapons from the high seas to the Shekhadi coast in Raigad district. Adhikari was involved in loading and unloading, while Alware took the contraband to Wangni Radio tower in his own truck, from where it was distributed further.

All of them were convicted under Customs Act (for bringing in and transporting prohibited goods from high seas), but they were spared of the tough provisions of TADA, as the judge Pramod Kode noted: "There was no evidence showing that they knew what the smuggled goods were for."

The judge also noted that though CBI had asked for seven years' RI, the maximum punishment under relevant sections, he could not do so as they did not have a prior conviction for a similar offence. Yet, Kode said, there was material to show that they were involved in smuggling prior to landing of RDX, and therefore he gave them maximum three years under section 135 of Customs Act. Earlier in the day, advocate Farhana Shah informed the court that actor Sanjay Dutt had had a gastro attack and was unable to come to the court.

With the sentencing of five convicts, the court is yet to declare sentences of 95 others, including the members of Tiger Memon's family and Sanjay Dutt. Delivering the verdict, Kode justified the imposition of fine pointing out that all of them had been paid Rs 25,000 or so for each trip in the transportation of the contraband and "they had profited from their crime."

Their lawyer Farhana Shah pleaded that none of them was in a position to pay the fine, and the fine be reduced. But the judge did not entertain the plea.