3 more get death sentence for 1993 serial blasts

Mumbai, July 19: Three more convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case were today awarded death sentence by the designated TADA court here, taking the number of convicts who have been awarded the capital punishment so far to six.

The designated TADA court here awarded the death sentences to Ashgar Mukadam, Shahnawaz Qureshi and Mohammed Shoib Ghansar, all close confidantes of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon. The court also slapped a fine of over Rs four lakh upon each of them.

Mukadam, who was an employee of Tiger Memon since 1992, had earlier been held guily on September 18 last year and the sentence was awarded to him today.

He was held guilty of being actively involved in the serial blast conspiracy right from the start. Mukadam had parked an RDX-laden car at the Plaza Cinema in Dadar, leading to the death of 10 people and 36 being injured in the consequent explosion.

The damage caused to property was estimated at Rs 87 lakh.

Upon being awarded the death sentence, Mukadam argued before the court that since he was an employee of Tiger Memon, he had no option but to obey his master's orders. However, the court rejected this.

He had also ferried three other convicts to three different hotels in the city where explosives had been planted.

Qureshi, an associate of Mukadam, had accompanied the latter for parking the RDX-laden car at Plaza Cinema. He was also convicted on September 18.

Incidentally, both Mukadam and Qureshi were awarded death sentences on three counts and life imprisonment on one count each.

Ghansar, a cousin brother of Mukadam, was pronounced guilty on September 14 last year. While awarding the sentence today, TADA court judge P D Kode observed that although Ghansar had joined the conspiracy in the final stages, yet his involvement in terrorist activities had been proved and, so, he has to face the death penalty. Ghansar had parked an RDX-laden scooter at Zaveri Bazaar on Shaikh Mamon Street near the Juma Masjid. The consequent blast had killed 17 people and had left 57 injured besides damaging property worth lakhs of rupees.

He was also held guilty of participating in the filling of RDX in vehicles at the Al Hussaini building, which was the hub of the conspiracy. He had also attended the conspiratorial meeting in which the targets were finally selected.

Judge Kode, incidentally, awarded the death sentence to Ghansar on two counts and life imrisonment on one count.

The court had yesterday awarded death sentence to three other convicts.

UNI