3 get life for Mumbai blasts

A special Pota court on Wednesday sentenced to life three of the 10 convicted in the multiple blasts that rocked the metropolis between December 2002 and March 2003, killing 12 people.

Muzammil Ansari, who had planted the bombs, will undergo imprisonment till the end of his life.

“If given the death penalty, his life would come to an end in a fraction of a second and he would not realise what pain the victims and their relatives are going through, and hence I am inclined to award him imprisonment for life, for the rest of his life,” Judge P.R. Deshmukh said.

Muzammil was the only accused in this case who could have been awarded the death penalty as the charge of planting bombs at all three places — a McDonald’s restaurant at Mumbai Central, Vile Parle Market and in a Karjat-bound local train — was proven against him.

According to the prosecution, though Saquib Nachan was the brain behind the blasts, it could not prove the charge of conspiracy against him and, as a result, the court awarded him only 10 years’ imprisonment. Nachan has already spent around eight years behind bars.

Two other accused, Dr Wahid Ansari, whose clinic was used to prepare the bombs, and Farhan Khot, were also awarded life imprisonment, but the judge specified that only Muzammil would be behind bars for the rest of his life.

Out of 13 accused in all, the court had already acquitted Mohammed Nadeem Paloba, Haroon Rashid Lohar and Adnan Mulla for want of evidence, but three convicts — Mohammed Kamil, Noor Mohammed Ansari, alias Imam, alias Sikandar, and Anwar Ali Khan — were awarded two years’ imprisonment and a fine of '10,000 each. All of them have already undergone more than two years in prison so they would not be required to serve any more time if they pay the fine.

All the other accused have been sent to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years though the judge imposed a heavy fine on all of the accused, which amounted to around Rs 12 lakh.