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The Special Pota Court will announce the verdict of the 2003 Mumbai twin blasts that happened at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar today.
52 people had been killed and 184 injured in the August 25, 2003, blasts. This will be the biggest judgment in a terror-related case since a Tada court convicted 100 people for the 1993 serial blasts case in 2007.
The crime branch had said the blasts were engineered by members of the "Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force'' to taking revenge of the Gujarat riots. The conspiracy for the blasts had been hatched in Dubai.. The accused told the police that they planned the blasts in retaliation against "atrocities on Muslims'' in Gujarat.
The police arrested six persons, including a 16-year-old girl, but a court later acquitted her. Two other accused, Ansari Ladoowala and Hasan Batterywala, were discharged from the case after a Pota review committee gave them a clean chit. The police claimed to have recovered 750 gm of RDX from Batterywala's auto repair shop in Kurla and two detonators from Ladoowala's house in November 2003.
The cops also claimed that Nasir Ahmed, the main conspirator, was killed in an encounter on September 12, 2003, near Matunga.
The court will announce its judgment against three accused, Haneef Sayyed (46), an auto driver, his wife Fahmeeda (43) and Ashrat Ansari (32). The fourth accused has been made an approver. Fahmeeda is lodged at the Byculla women's prison for the last six years while the two men have been kept at the Arthur Road jail. A total of 103 witnesses have been examined in court.
A taxi driver, a key witness in the case, led the police to the accused and said they travelled in his taxi on the day of the blast.
"We got the first clue from the taxi driver, Shivnarayan Pandey, who had described the whole journey and given the description of the suspects. Later, we arrested the husband-wife duo and Ansari,'' said chief investigating officer Suresh Walishetty, retired ACP. "Ladoowala and Batterywala had supplied the RDX to the accused. Haneef and the slain accused, Nasir, had assembled the bomb while Ashrat helped them plant it,'' said Walishetty.
"We have got 100% evidence and are hoping capital punishment to the accused in the case,'' said Walishetty. According to him, the conspiracy was hatched in Dubai after the Gujarat riots.
The suspects face two other cases-in the first, a bomb went off on a BEST bus in Ghatkopar on July 28, 2003, killing two. In the other case, a bomb was planted on another bus in SEEPZ on December 2, 2002. It did not explode.
