Session court grants bail to 1998 blast accused after 8 yrs

Mumbai, Sep 20 (UNI) After languishing in jail for over eight years, an alleged accused in the 1998 Mumbai serial blast was granted bail today by a session court.

Additional Sessions Judge Ms T J S Kalyanpur today granted conditional bail to a physically challenged blast accused Ashfaque Saheed Ahmed and asked him to furnish cash of Rs 10,000 and two more sureties of the like amount.

The alleged accused had moved an application through his counsel Susan Kunjuraman seeking bail on the ground that he had been in jail for the past eight years and four months without any progress in the trial.

In his application, he said for the past eight years and four months he is lodged at Arthur Road Jail and the trial has not yet commenced. He alleged that he is a blast victim and lost both his legs in the bomb explosion that occurred on February 27, 1998, at Bhura Chawl in Santacruz East.

The applicant was arrested along with 13 others in the 1998 blast case and made him as an approver in this case but he later turned hostile and seperate charges was framed against him during 2002.

Since the applicant was declared approver, the court had framed charges against all other 13 people arrested.

Later, a during 2002 a new supplementary charge sheet had been filed against the accused applicant under sections 302, 307, 326, 435 and 120B of IPC read with section 151 of Railways Act and Explosive Substances Act which the trial is still pending.

Six different places in Mumbai were rocked by serial blast in February 1998 in which four people were killed and 30 others injured.

UNI PVN MJ AK BD1939