Black Friday: SC adjourns hearing till July

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) The Supreme Court has adjourned till July the hearing of a petition challenging the Mumbai high court judgment banning the screening of Hindi movie 'Black Friday' allegedly based on 1993 Bombay bomb blasts conspiracy in which about 250 people were killed and several hundreds were injured.

A vacation bench comprising Mr Justices B P Singh and R V Raveendran adjourned the hearing on May 25 when counsel for the parties prayed for adjournment.

One Mushtaq Moosa Tarani had filed a writ petition in the high court seeking ban on the release of the movie on the ground that it would prejudice the trial of the case in which don Abu Salem, Dawood Ibrahim, Dubai based Memmons are the main suspects.

The conspiracy was allegedly hatched to settle scores for demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992.

The producers of the film M/s Mid Day Multimedia Ltd. have challenged the high court order in the apex court on the grounds that the movie was only a fiction and has nothing to do with the case. It would not influence the trial in the case in any manner and the producers were suffering heavy losses as the movie could not be released due to the court orders.

The petitioner in the high court has, however, pleaded that the main characters in the movie have direct resemblance with Abu Salem and other accused and the movie depicted the undertrials as conspirators in the bomb blast cases which rocked the commercial capital of the country in 1993.

Dawood Ibrahim and Memmon brothers are absconders in the case.

UNI AKS/SC RP GC1114