(Correction in para 6, line 5)

Mumbai, Sep 12 (UNI) Four members of the Memon family were today found guilty for the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts that killed 257 people and wounded over 700 besides destroying properties worth crores of rupees in India's financial capital.

Holding Yakub, Essa, Yussuf and Rubina guilty under various sections of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code , TADA court Judge Pramod Kode, however, discharged three other members of the Memon family giving them the benefit of doubt for lack of evidence. They are Suleman Memon, Raheen, wife of Suleman, and Hanifa, mother of Memon brothers.

Tiger Memon, one of the main accused in the case, is absconding and had been declared a proclaimed offender, while Abdul Razzaq Memon, father of Memon brothers, had died during the course of trial.

The punishment to those found guilty in the first batch of judgement pronounced today would be announced after hearing the prosecution and defence tomorow, the court said.

The Memon family had been charged with having masterminded the serial blasts which rocked the metropolis in 1993.

Of the four held guilty, all except Rubina are in jail. Rubina is out on bail. The request of Yakub Memon, a Chartered Accountant, pleading that his sister-in-law be given a week to surrender, was turned down by the court. She was taken into custody by police on the court's direction which said there is no provision in law to give time to surrender to a person who has been found guilty. Yakub pleaded for time, saying Rubina is a mother of two minor children and also has to look after her mother-in-law.

After his request was rejected, Yakub stood up and shouted that he and his family did not want any lawyer to argue on their behalf for the quantum of sentence to be announced after hearing arguments of the prosecution and defence tomorrow.

An angry Yakub shouted '' You are punishing innocent people.....you are making us terrorists.'' Speaking in Mumbaia Hindi, Yakub said '' they had warned me (against surrendering), saying I would be in trouble ( teri waat lag jayegi).'' While defence claimed that Yakub had surrendered, prosecution said he was arrested. Though Yakub did not name those who had warned him ( against surrendering), the reference is understood to be towards underworld Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, both proclaimed offenders in the case.

When the court ordered police to restrain him, Yakub was taken away to the dock where he was calmed by his brothers and other accused.

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