11 persons convicted in RSS bomb blast case

Chennai, June 21 (UNI) The designated Court, trying TADA cases, today convicted and sentenced 11 people and acquitted four others, including banned Al-Umma leader S A Pasha, in the case relating to the 1993 RSS office bomb blast in which 11 persons were killed.

Delivering the judgement, Judge T Ramaswamy awarded life sentence to three accused -- Abubacker Siddiq, Hyder Ali and Kaja Nizamuddin -- under Section 3(1)(2) of TADA, Section 120 (b) read with section 302 of the IPC, after the charges levelled against them by the prosecution were proved beyond doubt.

Of the remaining eight convicted, the judge awarded three years rigorous imprisonment to Rafiq Ahmed under Section 153 (a) and 109 of the IPC. Seven others -- Shahabuddin, Abdul Rahim, Ahamed Jnaniyar, Mohammad Moosa, Buhari, Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Zuber -- were awarded five years RI each under Section 3(4) of TADA.

Acquitting Mukhtar Ahmed, S A Pasha, Aminuddin Sheriff and Mohammad Abdul Aslam, the Judge clarified that the period of sentence which the accused had already undergone was set off.

In all, 18 persons, including Pasha, were accused in the case.

The pronouncement of verdict in the case was twice delayed on May 9 and June 11 as the judgement was not ready.

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