Mumbai blast: Manoj Gupta sentenced to 14 yr RI

Mumbai, June 5: The designated TADA court today sentenced Manoj Kumar Gupta to 14 years rigorous imprisonment for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

Apart from sentencing Gupta, the court also sentenced Parvez Zulfikar Qureshi and Salim Mira Shaikh to life imprisonment, Noor Khan to five years rigorous imprisonment and Altaf Ali Mushtaq Ali Sayyed to ten years rigorous imprisonment.

Gupta, body guard of Tiger Memon, was held guilty of participating in the landing of smuggled and possessing arms and ammunition, and disposing of the deadly RDX.

It was at his instance that a large cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the office of a co-convict, Hayat Ansari. He had escorted Tiger Memon at the time of landing of the arms and ammunition at Shekhadi in Raigad district.

He had disposed of the arms and ammunition and RDX at Naglabunder creek in Thane which was recovered by the police later on April 2, 1993.

The court, while sentencing him, observed that he had not participated in the conspiracy to trigger off the blasts but had actively participated in the disposal of the arms, ammunition and explosives.

After awarding the sentence, when the court asked the police to take him back to the jail, Gupta turned aggressive and held out a threat to the police.

He was awarded seven years RI and a fine of Rs 50,000 under Section 3(3) of TADA, ten years RI and a fne of Rs one lakh under Section 5 of TADA, 14 years RI and a fine of Rs one lakh under Section 6 of TADA, and five years RI and a fine of Rs 25,000 under Section 201 of the IPC for destroying evidence. All the sentences are to run concurrently.

UNI