In a twist to the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, the prosecution on Friday claimed that this was an act of “waging war against the nation”. Despite this charge not being framed against the accused at any time of the trial, the TADA court still has powers to convict them under section 121 of the IPC (waging war against the Government of India).
Special public prosecutor Deepak Salve on Friday argued before the court that if a designated Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) judge finds during trial that any accused had committed any other offence under this Act or under any other law, the court under section 12 (2) of this Act has the power to convict such a person and sentence him. He further argued that even if any charge is not framed against any accused, the court under the Tada Act has the power to convict the accused.
It may be recalled that a special Tada judge, Pramod Dattatrya Kode, had conducted the ’93 serial blasts case trial against more than 100 persons in the first phase and convicted 100 accused, including Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt for possessing firearms illegally. Though other accused like deported gangster Abu Salem and Mustafa Dossa were arrested before the judgement in that trial was pronounced, the trial of seven accused who were arrested at a later stage of the trial was separated. This was done so that the trial, which had already gone on for around 14 years, could get over soon.
In the first phase of trial, the judge had held that the accused had carried out blasts to take revenge for riots that erupted in Mumbai after the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 and it was not a war against the nation.
According to Mr Salve, when the Supreme Court had decided appeals in this case against earlier convicted accused, it was yet to decide on the appeal of Ajmal Amir Kasab (sentenced to death for his involvement in the 26/11 attacks case).
He said that the Supreme Court in the past had said an attack can be deemed as a war against the nation if any government institution like Parliament is targeted but later, while deciding Kasab’s case, the apex court held that even if people were killed for no other reason than they were Indians, then too it is a war against the nation, like the attack at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.
He submitted before special judge G.A. Sanap that the ’93 blasts were sponsored by Pakistan and the accused in their confession have accepted that they had gone to Pakistan, where officers of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI had trained them to handle weapons and hand grenades and hence it can be safely said it was a war against India.
