The special TADA court — hearing the Mumbai blasts case — on Monday sent out a stern message that “nation stands first”. Four police constables were sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment by the court for allowing safe passage to deadly arms and explosives used in the 1993 serial bombings.
   It is for the first time that public servants are being given punishments. The four policemen — Ashok Muleshwar, P M Mahadik, Ramesh Mali and S Y Palshilkar — were awarded six years RI and a fine of Rs 25,000 each for aiding and abetting terrorists.
   The sentences were pronounced by designated judge Pramod Kode, who has commenced awarding sentences to 100 convicts, starting from the lowest rung, in batches. The fifth person who was sentenced, Mansoor Ahmed Sayyed Ahmed, was a close aide of extradited ganglord Abu Salem, and was found guilty of transporting deadly AK-56 assault rifles from   actor Sanjay Dutt’s to another hideout prior to the terror attack.  He was given 10 years RI under section 3 (3) of the TADA and will have to pay a fine of Rs 50,000.
   Manzoor has been in jail for nine years and 10 months. If he fails to pay fine, he will have to undergo one more year in jail.
   On Friday, the TADA court had sentenced five convicted fishermen to three years RI under the Customs Act, as they had no knowledge of the nature of the consignment. The four policemen had allowed a safe passage to a truck laden with RDX used in the terror bombings, which had killed 257 innocent citizens and maimed over 700 persons on March 12, 1993.
   The cops were held guilty of aiding and abetting the terrorists under section 3(3) of the TADA and the prosecution had demanded life imprisonment for the convicts. The judge did not accept the prosecution’s plea stating that the four constables were subordinates of PSI V K Patil, whom he described as the “main man”.
Nation first
   However, the judge said the “nation stands first” and the convicts should be given punishment for not doing their assigned duty as public servants. “Otherwise, it would send a wrong signal,” he said. The court observed that the entire police party, stationed at the Srivardhan police station, had been paid a bribe of Rs 7 lakh for allowing the consignment to be cleared.
Sanjay summoned
   In case of Mansoor, he was convicted for carrying weapons from Sanjay Dutt’s Bandra residence to the house of Zebunnisa Qazi, a convict in the case. The court had convicted him on basis of his confession that he acted on instructions of his boss Abu Salem, with whom he had gone there.
   The special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said afterwards that “it is a very important development with regard to the case of actor as Mansoor had taken the arms from his residence”.