Tiger Memon's girlfriend, driver found guilty

Mumbai, Nov 15: The designated TADA court here today found guilty four associates of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon, including his girlfriend Mobina Baya and his driver Rafiq Madi, for their involvement in the serial blasts in the metropolis on March 12, 1993.

TADA Judge P D Kode, while convicting Baya, Madi and two other of his associates Ahmed Shah alias Salim Durani and Aziz Shaikh, cancelled their bail and ordered they be taken in custody. However, the court has released Mobina Baya on bail following an application moved by her seeking time to surrender on humanitarian grounds as she is now a married woman and mother of two children.

The court has allowed her application on a personal bond of Rs one lakh till the court decides her quantum of punishment.

All the four accused, who were convicted, were found guilty under the various sections of TADA, Arms and Explosives Act but were not found guilty for participating in the conspiracy Under Section 120-B of Indian Penal Code.

Mobina Baya, a close associate of Tiger Memon had permitted Memon and his associates to use her flat at Almedia road in Bandra, Mumbai suburbs to hold a meeting of the serial blast on March 9 and 10 1993 in which the plans were chalked out and finalised for committing the terrorist acts in the metropolis. The court, while convicting her, held that the accused was named by the second approver in the blast case in his deposition before the court. Besides this, she had also made her own confessional statement and also named by several co-accused in the case. The court held her guilty on section 3 of the TADA act.

Baya broke down in court like a child and pleaded for mercy.

Another close associate and driver of Tiger Memon, Rafiq Madi, was charged for participating in the landing of the arms and ammunition at Shekadi in Raighad district and transporting the same to Mumbai. He had also been charged for driving the car along with co-accused Asgar Mukadm for dropping few accused at Sahar airport.

From there, they went to Dubai and from there to Pakistan for receiving training in handling arms and ammunition.

The court convicted him under sections 3 and 6 of the TADA Act.

While convicting him, the court has accepted his confessional statement as a voluntarily-made statement.

Ahmed Shah alias Salim Durani, one of the highly educated blast accused and an associate of Tiger Memon, was found guilty for attending the meeting in Dubai where the conspiracy was hatched and harbouring two wanted blast accused at his native place at Tonk district in Rajasthan. He was also charged for possessing and concealing one AK-56 rifle and two of its magazines. Based on his confessional statement and other accused's statements, Durani was found guilty under sections 3(4), and 5 of TADA Act, and 212 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), for harbouring the absconding accused Javed Chikna and Yeda Aykub.

Durani, an MA in first class from Indore University, belongs to the royal family of Tonk and is popularly own as the 'Nawab of Tonk'.

Two years back, he had contested Maharashtra Assembly elections from Amboli constituency, Andheri in Mumbai, on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.

After his defeat in the election, he was involved in various political activities. At present, he is Mumbai president of Jan Morcha, led by actor Raj Babbar.

According to his defence in court, he went to Dubai for a business trip, on February 23, 1993. When he returned from Dubai, he was arrested and falsely implicated in the case, his lawyer claimed.

Durani's father was a retired District and Sessions Judge at Rajasthan. His two elder brothers are ex-army men and retired from the Indian Army as a Captain and as a Major. Both of them had taken part in the 1962 and the 1965 war.

A member of the celebrity family, Durani's uncle Sardar Khan was Collector of Mumbai in 1930s. He had also been awarded with the prestigious 'Victoria Cross' award. Mr Khan was later appointed as the Prime Minister of Junagadh in Gujarat.

Meanwhile, another associate of Memon, Aziz Sheik was convicted under sections 5 of TADA and 3, 7 read with 25 of the Arms Act.

Among the blast accused popularly known as Netaji, Sheik had also contested the previous Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

UNI

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