Dawood aide accepts guilt after conviction

Mumbai, Sep 25: Dawood Phanse, found guilty by a TADA court of attending a meeting at Dubai in February 1993, where the Mumbai serial bomb blasts conspiracy was hatched by India's most wanted terrorist and Mumbai underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, today accepted his guilt but pleaded for leniency, saying He wanted to die at home instead of in jail.'' Landing agent of smuggled gold and the turned RDX used in India's worst terror attack that killed 257 people on March 12, 1993, Phanse, who suffers from multiple illnesses, accepted his guilt pronounced Friday by the TADA court of Mr Pramod Kode, saying '' I accept my mistake and apologise for it''.

Phanse, who today became the first convict in the case to accept his guilt, begged for pardon and pleaded with the judge to give him lesser punishment, saying '' I want to die at home instead of in jail. '' His confessional statement that he had gone to Dubai to attend the meeting convened by Dawood Ibrahim, the court, for the first time on September 22, had also given a judicial finding on the involvement of the underworld don in the case.

The oldest convict in the case, Phanse, who was given a chair to sit while recording his statement for the quantum of punishment to be given to him, said he has two wives, aged 70 and 65 years, and a 35-year-old unmarried daughter to look after. Unable to walk without support, Phanse was brought to the court room by his son Sarfraz, also an accused in the case.

He said he had been granted bail for 11 months on medical grounds and there had been no complaint against him during 12 years he has spent in jail.

Phanse was found gulty of receiving and handling of deadly arms and ammunition besides the RDX brought to India at the behest of Dawood Ibrahim. He was also convicted on the charge of organising the landing of the arsenal on Shekhadi coast in Raigad district on February 3 and 7, 1993. He hails from the same district.

UNI