NEW DELHI: Thirteen years after serial blasts shook Mumbai, killing nearly 250 people and injuring 700, a special court will deliver the much-awaited judgment on Thursday. The verdict will decide the fate of the 123 accused, including film star Sanjay Dutt, who was charged with keeping AK-56 rifles at home.

Marathon trial

After a marathon trial lasting for nearly a decade, TADA judge Pramod D. Kode reserved judgment in September 2003and fixed August 10 to begin delivering the verdict.

Besides the families of the victims and the accused, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Central Bureau of Investigation, which also probed the blasts, and the Mumbai police Crime Branch are awaiting the verdict. The STF is already in Mumbai. The special court would have scrutinised nearly 10,000 pages filed in the charge sheets.Informed legal sources say the judgment may take even weeks to be delivered, dwelling on the role of each of the accused and fixing guilt. It will take some more time before the quantum of sentence is pronounced, say the sources.

Though the alleged masterminds — Dawood Ibrahim, his brother Anees Ibrahim and Tiger Memon — are out of India, several accused, who helped in transporting explosives and planting RDX-laden vehicles at strategic locations, were tracked down and put in jail in less than a year of the incidents. The blasts were caused at a dozen locations on the "Black Friday" March 12, 1993.

The STF took up the probe on November 19, 1993 and filed 18 supplementary charge sheets. It identified 15 more accused and prosecuted six of them. In all, it arrested 24 accused persons of whom 20 had been absconding. A separate trial was held for Mohammad Dosa, one of the prime accused and key associate of Dawood Ibrahim, who was brought home from outside the country by the CBI, and Riaz Siddiqui, another key accused.

The TADA court examined 686 prosecution witnesses. The examination of the accused ended in November 2001. Arguments went on from August 2001 to September 2002 and written submissions concluded in September 2003.

As many as 24 accused, including Dawood Ibrahim, Anees Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, are believed to be outside India. Their names are also on the list of the "Most Wanted" terrorists given to Islamabad by New Delhi on more than one occasion.

Two of Tiger's brothers — Yakub and Suleman — are in jail. Sanjay Dutt spent 18 months in jail.

Apart from those who unleashed terror on March 12, 1993, At least four senior customs officials who helped the conspirators in the landing of RDX, arms and ammunition were arrested.

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