1993 Mumbai blasts: Three awarded death penalty

Mumbai, July 18: The designated TADA court here today awarded death sentences to three 1993 Mumbai serial blast convicts including Abdul Gani Turk, guilty of triggering explosion at the Century Bazar at Worli here that had killed 88 people.

The Worli explosion was the worst blast and had claimed the maximum number of casualties. As many as 257 people were killed in the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993, with Century Bazar explosion alone claiming almost a third of the total fatalities.

The court also awarded the death sentences to Parvez Naseer Sheikh and Mohammed Mushtaq Tarani for their role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

Turk faced as many as 16 other charges, including the charge of attending meetings in Dubai and Mumbai where the conspiracy was hatched receiving weapons training in Pakistan, and loading RDX in motor vehicles, which were were parked at various places to trigger the blasts.

Sheikh was held guilty of planting explosives at Katha Bazar in South Mumbai, leading to the death of four persons and left 21 injured. Property worth over Rs 37 lakh had been destroyed in the blast.

He was also held guilty of planting explosives at the Sea Rock Hotel in Bandra here. However, there was no loss to life or property in this explosion.

Tarani was held guilty of parking an RDX-laden scooter at Shaikh Memon Street. However, this had failed to explode and, thus, there was no loss to life or property.

He had also planted an RDX-laden suitcase at the Centaur Hotel here, causing a huge explosion and leading to the destruction of property worth around Rs 2.1 crore. Three persons lost their lives in this blast.

Turk, Sheikh and Tarani are the first to be awarded the death sentence in the case so far. The court has convicted 100 accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and has awarded sentences to 80 of them till today. Apart from the three death sentences awarded today, fourteen others have been sentenced to life while the rest have received varied sentences.

The court also imposed a total fine of Rs six lakh upon Parvez Naseer Sheikh, Rs 4.12 lakh upon Tarani, and Rs 2.75 lakh upon Turk. If the three challenge the sentences in the Supreme Court, they will have to pay up the fine first. While awarding the death sentences to the three, TADA court judge P D Kode observed that this was rarest of the rare cases. ''A criminal has no religion,'' he observed. This was the most heinous crime, he said while averring that by taking advantage of an earlier event (communal riots in Mumbai) which had not affected them directly or indirectly, the three had committed the crime and brought disgrace to the Muslim religion which, otherwise, has played a pioneering role in building the nation.

UNI