A court here on Monday found five more accused in the 1998 serial bomb blast cases guilty of charges, barring major charges of criminal conspiracy, murder and attempt to murder, taking the total number of those convicted to 158.

Judge K Uthirapathy of the Designated Sessions Court (Bomb Blast Cases) found the five guilty of charges other than criminal conspiracy, murder and attempt to murder. The Judge while convicting 153 accused of various charges among the 220 core charges on August 1, had deferred the pronouncement of findings on the five accused for Monday.

Delivering the judgement, he said that the charges, barring the major ones, against the five were proved.

Meanwhile, the bail petitions of 84 others against whom there were no major charges were under the process of court. So far, a total of 69 accused, including founder of banned Al-Umma, S A Basha, had been found guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder, and also promoting communal hatred while 89 others were found guilty of various lesser charges.

Abdul Nasser Madhani of Kerala-based PDP had been cleared of all the five charges and released on bail.

Of the total 168 arrested, one had turned approver while another died during the course of the trial.  Seven persons had already been granted bail.

The series of explosion during the visit of BJP leader Mr L K Advani on Feb 14, 1998, claimed 58 lives and left more than 200 injured besides causing a property loss worth Rs.14 crore.