93 blasts: 5 accused found guilty, one acquitted

Mumbai, Nov 9: The designated TADA court here today convicted five people who had concealed and destroyed arms and ammunition and explosives which were smuggled into the country by prime absconding accused Mohammed Dossa at Dighi village in Maharashtra's Raigad district prior to the 1993 serial blasts in the metropolis.

The court, however, acquitted 65-year-old blast accused Sayyed Ismail Qadri for lack of evidence.

TADA Judge P D Kode cancelled his bail given to five blast accused -- Zameer Sayyed Qadri, Abdullah Surti, Fakhi Ali Subedar, Janadardhan Gambas and Sayyed Ibrahim Qadri after they were found guilty.

All the five accused were found guilty under the various sections of TADA Act and Customs Act, but were not found guilty under Section 123 of Indian Penal Code for participating in conspiracy. All five had concealed the arms in the mango groves belonging to an accused at Raigad. They were also found guilty of disposing of large number of arms and ammunition at Kangalgaon creek in Raigad.

The court had convicted the five on the basis of their onfessional statments and on the basis of collaborative evidence which was available against them.

While acquitting accused Sayyed Ismail Qadri, the court held that the accused had not given any confessional statement but only was named by a co-accused in the case. The court said even though, the co-accused had neither properly named them in the confessional statment, nor properly disclosed the role played by accused in the case.

Accused Zameer Qadri was found guilty for participating in the concealing operation of 12 AK-56 assaut rifles, 19,500 cartridges of the rifles and 36 magazines in the mango groves of another accused Abdul Razzak Subedar. Zameer was absconding after committing the crime but was later arrested in 1995 and was convicted under section 3(3), 6 of TADA Act on the basis of his own and two of his associate's confessional statements which were later retracted. The court had also accepted the recovery evidences laid by the prosecution in the court against him.

Accused Abdullah Surti was found guilty for aiding and abetting wanted accused Shabeer Qadri in concealing arms and ammunitition in Razzak's mango groves. He was also found guilty of dumping the consignment with the assistance of another accused Jaya Wed Koli at Kandalgaon Creek. The court had also accepted the evidence led by the prosecution that the accused had assisted another blast accused in the transportation of the AK-56 assault rifles to another blast accused Firoz.

Faki Ali was convicted of assisting Zammer Qadri and Abdullah Surti for concealing arms in the mango groves and disposing some part of the consignment in the creek.

Janardhan Gambas was the only accused among five who was found guilty under section 1(I) read with 135 of the Customs Act, besides being convicted under section 3 and 6 of TADA Act for helping the agent Uttam Poddar in landing of arms consignment at Dighi.

The court held that according to the evidences produced before the court it was clear that the accused was not having knowledge of the consignment at the time of landing, but later he came to know the consignment contained the smuggled arms and explosives, which were smuggled by absonding prime accused Mohammed Dossa for committing the attack.

Accused Sayyed Ibrahim was found guilty under section 3(3) and 6 of TADA Act for participating in concealing and disposing of arms and explosives. The court also found him guilty for transporting the arms from Mhasla in Raigad District to Mumbai.

Acquitted accused Sayyed Ismail was facing the charge of participating in the conspiracy of the blasts as well as concealing and disposing of arms. He was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, the court could not record the statement of the convicts on the quantum of the punishment to be awarded to them as the court time was over. The same will be recorded tomorrow.

UNI