BOMBAY, 10 August 2006 — A court is to decide today the fate of 123 people accused of involvement in the dastardly Bombay bomb blasts in 1993, which killed over 250 people. Famous film star Sanjay Dutt is also one of the accused in the case.
Verdicts in the case — in which 13,000 pages of evidence have been recorded and more than 600 witnesses examined — will be delivered in a special anti-terrorism court headed by Judge Pramod Kode, court officials said.
Sanjay Dutt, a star of the Hindi-language Bollywood film industry, is accused of aiding those who carried out the bombings in India’s financial capital.
The 47-year-old actor reportedly canceled some scheduled shoots this week as he was “anxious” about the case.
The popular actor, who spent 18 months in detention starting in July 1994, is charged with possessing a rifle and later destroying it with the help of friends. He has always protested his innocence.
After his release, he went on to score major box office successes with hits such as “Vaastav” and “Munnabhai MBBS.”
The 1993 Bombay bombings were blamed on a nexus of Bombay gangsters and militants.
They were allegedly in retaliation for nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots between December 1992 and January 1993. The riots were triggered by the razing of a mosque at Ayodhya in northern Uttar Pradesh state by Hindu fanatics in December 1992.
Eighty-six of the accused who were granted bail, including Sanjay Dutt, have appeared regularly in court in recent months, along with 37 others who are in custody — including alleged gangster Abu Salem.
Salem, extradited from Portugal last year, is accused of being a former senior lieutenant of the main suspect in the case, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
Dawood, his brother Anis and associate Tiger Memon are believed to be living abroad and have never been arrested or produced before Indian courts.
Last month’s Bombay train bombings which killed at least 183 and injured more than 800 have focused attention on the slow pace of the judicial process.
“I am keeping my fingers crossed (for him) as all the prosecution witnesses have turned hostile against the police allegations. I am hoping that he will come out clean,” Sanjay Dutt’s lawyer Farhana Shah told AFP.
Shah said they would approach the Supreme Court if the verdict went against Sanjay Dutt. His late father Sunil Dutt was a Congress party member of Parliament who had protected Muslims during the riots.
