MUMBAI: A special anti-terrorism court on Monday held three people guilty of planting bombs in two cabs and triggering blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazar in Mumbai in 2003 that left 53 people dead and over 100 injured.
Describing the blasts as the “rarest of rare cases,” the court of M.R. Purnaik said it would announce sentences on Aug. 4 after hearing arguments from the defense and prosecution on the quantum of punishment. The three — Asharaf Ansari, Hanif Syed Anees and his wife Fahmida Syed — were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the trial was conducted in the court especially created to try the accused.
The court said the involvement of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the blasts was clearly established by the prosecution. The convicts remained silent and listened to the judge as he pronounced the verdict.
Two other defendants — Mohammed Ladoowala and Mohammed Hassan Batterywala — were earlier released from detention after a POTA review committee cleared them of any wrongdoing. The main conspirator in the case, Nasir Ahmed, was killed in a police encounter at Shivaji Park in Dadar suburb.
Speaking to the media after the verdict, special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said the prosecution will demand the death sentence for the convicts. Defense lawyer Sushan Kunjuramaran said he was shocked at the ruling and would consider an appeal.
Nikam said Zahid Yusuf Patni, who turned state witness, said in his confession that the LeT hatched the conspiracy in Dubai to trigger the blasts. The objective behind the blasts, Patni said, was to avenge the deaths of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots that broke out in the wake of the Godhra train burning in February that year. At least 2,000 Muslims were hacked, beaten, shot or burned to death in the attacks, which erupted after 59 Hindus died in the train fire that was at first blamed on a Muslim mob. A subsequent inquiry concluded the fire was accidental.
“This is the first case in (Indian) legal history in which a husband and wife were involved in a criminal conspiracy to explode bombs,” Nikam said.
The prosecutor said he had cross-examined 103 witnesses, one of whom was a taxi driver in whose cab the accused kept a bomb near the Gateway of India.
Ladoowala and Batterywala, he said, were arrested in Mumbra and Kurla suburbs of Mumbai.
Nikam claimed police seized 750 grams of RDX in Batterywala’s shop, while two hand grenades were seized at the residence of Ladoowala. However, the POTA review committee did not accept these pieces of evidence and recommended the release of the two. The Supreme Court concurred with the committee’s report, Nikam added.
— With input from agencies
