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10 convicted, 3 acquitted in Mumbai triple blasts case

Mumbai - The sentences for the 10 convicted persons will be pronounced on Wednesday.

  Ten persons including Saquib Nachan, the former head of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) were on Tuesday convicted for their role in three bomb blasts in Mumbai in 2002-03.
The special court, set up under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota), however, acquitted three others in the case. The sentences for the 10 convicted persons will be pronounced on Wednesday.
In all, 25 persons were charged with triggering off the blasts, which occurred within a span of three months. While some of the accused died during the course of the long trial, or were killed in encounters, five others are absconding.
Half a dozen bomb blasts occurred in Mumbai between December 2002 and August 2003. The Simi activists who were convicted on Tuesday were involved in three of these blasts in which a dozen persons were killed and more a hundred injured.
According to the prosecution Nachan and Faisal Khan, a Pakistani member of the Lashkar-e-Tayyba, were the masterminds behind these blasts. All accused were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, Pota and the Explosive Substances Act.
The first explosion occurred on December 6, 2002 - four days after a bomb went off in a bus at Ghatkopar - at a McDonald's outlet at Mumbai Central station. Nearly 30 persons were injured in the blast. On January 27, 2003, the second blast, triggered by the Simi activists, took place at Vile Parle, when a bomb kept on a bicycle exploded, killing one and injuring 32.
The third blast happened on March 13, 2003, when a bomb exploded in a suburban train at Mulund station. About 10 persons were killed and more than 70 injured.
nithin@khaleejtimes.com

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