Parvez Shaikh found guilty in 1993 blasts case

Mumbai, Sept 21: A TADA court here today held Parvez Shaikh guilty of explosions at Katha Bazaar in Pydhonie and at Hotel Sea Rock in Bandra during the 1993 serial bomb blasts in the metropolis, which left 257 people dead and more than 700 wounded.

The 40-year-old erstwhile aide to prime absconding accused Tiger Memon, Shaikh was found guilty of stationing an RDX-laden scooter at Katha Bazaar, which killed four people and injured 21 besides damaging property worth Rs 40 lakh. He was also found guilty of placing an RDX-laden suitcase in a room at Hotel Sea Rock, which exploded damaging property worth Rs 9 crore. However, nobody was hurt in this blast.

Out of the 18 charges slapped against him, he was convicted in all except two charges.

TADA Judge Pramod Kode, however, acquitted him of the charge of participating in arms training at Sandheri and Bhorghat villages in adjoining Raigad district and transporting weapons from Jogeshwari to Musafirkhana in Mumbai before the serial blasts rocked the city on March 12, 1993.

Of the total 123 accused in the case, Shaikh is the ninth accused to be convicted. The remaining convicts include four members of the Memon family. Three members of the Memon were, however, discharged from the case for want of sufficient evidence against them, while Abdul Razzak Memon, the family patriarch, died during trial.

Listed as accused number 12 in the chargesheet, he was found guilty of participating in the landing of deadly RDX at Shekhadi in coastal region of Raigad district between February 3 and 7.

Shaikh, in his confessional statement before Deputy Commissioner of Police K L Bishnoi, had admitted to these crimes. He, however, later retracted, claiming that his statement was given under duress and recorded against his wish.

He was also held guilty of conspiracy in the serial blasts and of filling RDX in vehicles, which were planted at various places on the day of the blasts.

Mr Kode, while pronouncing the verdict, accepted his confessional statement in view of corraborative evidence produced before the court by the prosecution.

When pronunced guilty of planting the RDX-laden suitcase at Hotel Sea Rock in a room he had not booked himself under section 3(2) of TADA and sections 307 and 436 of the IPC, his counsel Subhash Kanse objected to charge of attempt to murder slapped under section 307 of the IPC , arguing no one had died nor anybody was hurt in the blast. But Mr Kode said though only property was damged, the accused had planted the explosive with the intention to causing injury to the people.

Besides holding him guilty under TADA, the court also found him guilty under seciton 3, 4(b), 9(b)(i) of the Explosive Substances Act and various sections of the IPC.

Dressed in white kurta-pyjama, Pravez did not react when pronounced guilty of various charges for which he could get a minimum of five years in jail and the maximum of the death penalty.

UNI