Convict approaches SC challenging conviction under TADA

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) A convict in 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case has approached the Supreme Court, challenging his conviction and sentence under TADA.

The petitioner, Aziz Ahmed Mohammad Ahmed Sheikh, was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25000 for concealing foreign make arms and ammunition in Narialwadi graveyard at Mazgaon in Mumbai.

The petitioner has challenged his conviction on the ground that Justice Markandey Katju of the Supreme Court in a recent judgement has expressed his doubts whether a person can be convicted for an office under repealed law as TADA was repealed in 1995.

The petition filed through Mushtaq Ahmed advocate has also claimed a compensation of Rs 25 lakhs for his physical torture and mental agony for keeping him in illegal police custody, without producing him in the court.

As per law, the date of commission of an offence is the relevant date for deciding whether a person can be convicted under any law. In the present case, TADA was in force at the time the serial blasts in Mumbai took place in 1993, in which over 200 lives were lost and 123 persons were put to trial. Hundred have since been convicted by the TADA court, Arthur Road jail compound Mumbai, while 23 have been acquitted.

Considered to be the biggest trial in the world , it took around 13 years in concluding.

UNI