Two convicts who were directly involved in planting the bombs to kill innocent people in Mumbai on March 12, 1993 were sentenced to life imprisonment by the special TADA court here on Tuesday.
The two convicts were Imtiyaz Ghawte and Nasim Barmare. They are among a small group of convicts who actually planted RDX bombs and threw hand grenades.
Plea rejected
The designated judge Pramod Kode resumed awarding sentences to the remaining convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings case, after rejecting a plea by 16 convicts to make a reference to the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of the applicability of the TADA act after its expiry in 1995.
Imtiyaz, who is infected by HIV and struggling for life behind bars, was present at Shekhadi coast in Raigad district where Tiger Memon brought RDX explosives, arms and ammunition for engineering the terror attack.
On the day of the attack, Imtiyaz rode an RDX-laden scooter from Memon’s Mahim base of Al Hussaini building to the crowded Dhanji Street in Zaveri Bazaar, the city’s bullion market in Central Mumbai.
Besides Imtiyaz, another planter Mushtaq Tarani rode the second scooter and both the vehicles were parked at Dhanaji street at the northern end of Zaveri Bazaar.
At 2.15 pm the first bomb planted by terrorists at Bombay Stock Exchange had exploded.
Within minutes the third planter Shoaib Ghansare reached Shaikh Memon street at the south end of Zaveri Bazaar and parked his RDX-laden scooter there.
While the two scooter bombs parked at Dhanaji Street did not explode and scores of lives were saved, the one parked at the southern end of the Bazaar exploded, killing 17 people.
All the three scooter bombs were planted at Zaveri Bazaar, which shows the deadly design of terrorists.
The two un-exploded scooters were recovered later and traced to Tiger Memon.
Nasim Barmare had thrown hand grenades at the Sahar international airport terminal on that day.
He was accompanied by Mohammed Iqbal. Both rode on a Hero Honda motorcycle, belonging to Tiger Memon’s brother Ayub, with four hand grenades each.
Punishments
The judge convicted Imtiyaz under the TADA, as well as under the section 120 B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as for making an attempt to murder.
He was also convicted under various sections of the Explosive Substances Act and the Explosives Act.