SC allows Mumbai blasts convicts to file appeal

New Delhi, Oct 26: The Supreme Court today permitted convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case to file their appeal against conviction and sentence without filing the copy of the impugned judgement of the TADA court.

Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for CBI, undertook to file the copy of the judgement in view of its contents running into around 5,000 pages.

The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices R V Raveendran and V S Sirpurkar when the bail applications of Mossa Chouhan and Sardar Saha Wali Khan were mentioned today before the apex court.

The bench refused to grant further relief and turned down the plea of the counsel for the two petitioners on bail today itself.

The apex court made it clear that it will hear their applications for regular bail only when appeals are filed by them.

The exemptions from filing of the certified copy of the judgement of TADA court was granted when the petitioner pleaded before the apex court that it would not be possible to file appeals soon as it will take time to get the copies of the judgement in typed and photocopied form.

The CBI counsel assured the court that he would try to file the copy of the judgement within a week.

Filmstar Sanjay Dutt, who has been sentenced to six years imprisonment and is presently lodged in Yerwada central jail, Pune, filed his appeal yesterday along with the application for suspension of his sentence.

Some of the convicts were granted interim bail by the top court with the directions that each one of them will surrender immediately before TADA judge after being supplied with the copy of the judgement. There are 123 accused in the case, and it took about 13 years for the court to reach its conclusion.

On March 12, 1993, Mumbai was rocked by a series of bomb blast which left about 250 dead and thousands other injured.

UNI