Abu Salem's associate gets 10-year RI in 1993 bomb blasts case

Mumbai, May 21 (UNI) Manzoor Quereshi, a close aide of extradited gangster Abu Salem, who had transported AK-56 rifles from Bollywood actor Sanjoy Dutt's residence in suburban Bandra to another place before the 1993 bomb blasts, was today sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by the designated TADA court here.

Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court Judge P D Kode awarded the sentence to Quereshi and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000. The court observed that if he failed to pay the fine, he would have to undergo further imprisonment of one year.

Quereshi has already spent over nine years in jail and will have to spend another year.

According to the prosecution case, Quereshi, along with Salem, had visited Dutt's place and from there, he collected the rifles and later took it to the residence of convict Zaibunissa Kazi.

Quereshi, a travel agent by profession, however, did not show any emotion when the verdict was pronounced. All the while, he maintained that he had visited Dutt's residence to get a glimpse of the filmstar and accidently got trapped in the case.

UNI