Two more convicted in 1993 serial blasts case

Mumbai, Oct 19: The TADA court today found two more persons guilty of bringing arms at Dighi in Raigad district in the serial blasts case.

Designated TADA Judge P D Kode found -- Uttam Potdar and Salimmira Shaikh alias Salim Kutta, aides of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon - guilty of bringing arms at Digi in Raigad district u/s 3(3) of TADA Act and Arms Act.

The court, however, did not find them guilty of participating in the main conspiracy of the serial blasts that rocked Mumbai, claiming 257 lives and injuring more than 700 people on March 12, 1993.

The Court said Potdar and Shaikh, close associates of absconding accused Mohammedd Dossa, had acted as per the instruction of Tiger Memon, and knowingly felicitated the landing of the arms. It also found Potdar guilty of arranging manpower for bringing arms and transporting it from Digi to various places in Mumbai, besides, arranging a meeting with police, custom officers and other blasts accused and offering bribe to customs and police officers who in return allowed the bringing of arms at Digi.

While accepting Potdar's confessional statement recorded by Joint Commissioner of Police Meera Borwankar, in which Potdar confessed that Dossa and his associates were smuggling silver into the country and nothing else, and other corroborative evidences, he was not found guilty of participating in the main conspiracy of the blast.

Meanwhile, another accused Salimmira Shaikh, a close associate of Dubai deported blast accused Ahmed Dossa alias Mustafa Majnu, was also found guilty for actively participating in the landing of arms at Digi and arranging a meeting of customs officials, police and other blasts accused.

Shaikh, an underworld don in Crawford Market, was arrested by the Gujarat Police at Porbunder in an arms seizure case a few years ago and had been in custody in 1996 after he confessed to the CBI his involvement in the serial blasts case.

While the court did not find him guilty of being deeply involved in the blasts, it found him guilty of making a telephonic conversation with some absconding accused at Dubai.

UNI

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