TADA court convicts four, acquits one

Mumbai, Oct 16 (UNI) The TADA court today found four more people guilty of helping prime absconding accused Tiger Memon in the landing of arms and RDX that were used in the 1993 serial bomb blasts but acquitted one due to lack of evidence.

With this, the court has so far convicted 47 accused and acquitted 16 out of the total 123 who faced trial in the 13-year-old case in which 257 people were killed and over 700 wounded.

Those convicted today by designated TADA judge Pramod Kode are Tulsiram Surve, Ghulam Hafiz Sheikh, Muzmail Khan Kadri and Khalil Nasir.

Anand Bhoir, a honorary village police official, popularly known as police Patil, was, however, acquitted for want of sufficient evidence.

The court acquitted him of the charge of allowing his dumper for dumping 59 bags of RDX into Nangla Bunder creek on the ground that the accused had no knowledge of the contents in the bags. The court also did not believe his confessional statement, saying it appeared to have been taken under duress.

Surve, watchman of high security Wangani mircowave tower situtated close to Shekhadi coast where the arsenal arrived, was found guilty of allowing use of government property by Tiger Memon and accomplices for assembling arms and reloading them in vehicles for distribution.

Surve was also found guilty of concealing 59 bags of RDX in his agriculture field in Raigad district. These bags were later removed by Memon's accomplices, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Surve was also found guilty under section 202 of the IPC for not informing authorities of the smuggling of arms and explosives despite having knowledge.

The court accepted his confessional statement as a vital peice of evidence, as the co-accused had also corroborated the role played by him.

More UNI XR-WD SA AK BD1719