Spl Court to pronounce sentence for 70 convicted on Oct 24

Coimbatore, Oct 22 (UNI) A Special Court, hearing the 1998 serial bomb blasts case here, today said a sentence would be pronounced in respect of 70 convicted, including banned Al-Umma President S A Basha and Secretary Mohammad Ansari, against whom major charges were proved, on October 24.

Special Judge K Uthirapathy announced this, despite earlier informing that the pronouncement of sentence was likely to be delayed due to paper work.

It may be recalled that the Judge had so far sentenced 88 people in the case, of which 83 had walked free as they were punished for less than nine years and had already served more than nine years.

The serial blasts, which rocked this textile city on February 14, 1998, had claimed 58 lives, injured over 250 persons and destroyed property worth several crore of Rupees. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of CBCID had arrested 168 persons, including Kerala-based People's Democratic Party (PDP) President Abdul Nasser Maudhany. The Judge had acquitted eight accused, including Mr Maudhany. While one accused Mohammed Dustagir had died in judicial custody, Riaz-ur-Rahman turned approver. Minor charges were proved against 88 accused and major charges against 70 accused.

UNI