Fifth convict pleads for freedom to marry

Mumbai, Sept 15 (UNI) Mohammed Sohaib Ghansar, a 43-year-old convict in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case, today pleaded for his release by the trial TADA court saying he wanted to marry a girl who has been waiting for him for the last 13 years he has been in jail.

Recording his statement on the quantum of punishment to him after the designated court of Pramod Kode prounced him guilty of having planted an RDX-laden scooter in Zaveri Bazaar that killed 17 people and injured 57 on March 12, 1993, Ghansar , a key hitman of absconding prime accused Tiger Memon, also pleaded that he has to look after his 75-year-old mother and 16-year-old sister. Marriage of the sister is also his responsibility, he further pleaded.

Without denying the charges on which he was convicted, Ghansar , a mechanic, guilty of stuffing RDX in vehicles at Tiger Memon's Al-Husseini building which were used to carry out 13 explosions in the metropolis, he said he neither had a criminal past nor had there been any complaint against him during the 13 years he has spent in the jail.

He said if the court accepted his plea and released him on compassionate ground after setting off his 13 years in jail against sentence, he will be able to fulfil his responsibilities of looking after his old mother and make arrangements for his sister's marriage.

Ghansar was found guilty of conspiracy and murder as also under the provisions of TADA, various sections of the IPC, Explosives Substances Act, Explosives Act and Damage to Properties Act.

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