2 more get life terms

Mumbai, July 17 (UNI) Resuming the process of handing down sentences to those held guilty in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case after a long hiatus, special court judge P D Kode today sentenced two more convicts to life imprisonment.

With this, the number of convicts who have been given the life sentence has risen to 14. As many as 100 persons have been convicted in the serial blasts case and Judge Kode has awarded sentences to 78 of them.

Judge Kode today awarded the life sentence to Imtiaz Ghawte and Naseem Barmare, both of them close confidantes of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon. The judge also slapped a fine of a little over Rs two lakh upon both.

Ghawte had been charged with parking a scooter, laden with the deadly RDX, at Dhanji Street in South Mumbai. The RDX, however, had not exploded. Ghawte was also found guilty of filling RDX in vehicles at the Al Husseni building, and for assisting in the landing of arms and explosives at Shekhadi in Raigad district.

Ghawte, who is suffering from AIDS, was out on bail since 2005 but was taken back into custody after he was pronounced guilty by the court last September.

Soon after the court awarded the sentence to Ghawte, his counsel, Farhana Shah, moved an application urging the court not to shift Ghawte from the Arthur Road jail where he is presently lodged. Adv Shah told the court that her client was receiving treatment at the J J Hospital here and has been asked to visit the hospital on August 14 for a routine check-up.

Incidentally, mostly undertrials are lodged in the Arthur Road jail and the inmates are shifted to other jails after their conviction.

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