The Supreme Court will fix on Monday the date for commencing final hearings in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case in which 100 people were so far convicted by the Special TADA court.
Among the convicts was Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was held guilty and sentenced to six years in jail under the Arms Act but was exonerated for terror offences under the stringent TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act).
The CBI, which has prosecuted the case for around 14 years involving 123 accused, preferred not to appeal against the special court verdict, acquitting 50-year-old Dutt under TADA.
Around 100 petitions, both by the accused and the CBI, are listed for hearing before a bench comprising Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan.
The blasts had killed 257 people and left over 700 injured on the country’s commercial capital.
Among the convicts, 12 were awarded death sentence and 20 got life imprisonment.
Those sent to gallows by TADA judge P.D. Kode included Yakub Memon, brother of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon, who along with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Mohammed Dossa were alleged to have hatched the conspiracy in Dubai to target Mumbai after communal riots had ravaged the city in January 1993.
Others sentenced to death are — Shoaib Ghansar, Asghar Mukadam, Shah Nawaz Qureshi, Abdul Ghani Turk, Parvez Shaikh, Mohammad Iqbal Mohammad Yusuf Shaikh, Mohammad Farooq Pawale, Mushtaq Tarani, Zakir Hussain, Abduk Akhtar Khan and Firoz Amani Malik.
Among the 20 sentenced to life imprisonment included Essa Memon, Yusuf Memon, Rubina Memon, Naseem Barmare, Imtiaz Ghavate, Bashir Khairulla, Moin Qureshi, Dawood Phanse, Abdul Gafoor Parker and Vijay Patil.
After the convictions were challenged, the Supreme Court stayed the execution of death sentences.
The convicts, who had escaped death and life sentences, were granted bail by the Supreme Court.
Dutt, who was sentenced to six years imprisonment under the Arms Act on July 31, 2007, is also currently on bail.
The CBI has appealed against the acquittal of Ajay Marwah, a friend of the actor charged with hiding his revolver.
The agency has also filed appeals in the case of two women accused. It has sought enhancement of punishment of Zaibunnisa Kazi, convicted under TADA for keeping arms delivered to her by Abu Salem after visiting Dutt, besides challenging the acquittal of Rukshana Zariwala.
Since the records of the case were lengthy, CBI has submitted CDs of the text of all the evidence that runs into 1.2 lakh pages.
