By IANS
New Delhi : Four members of the Memon family who have been convicted for their roles in the 1993 Mumbai blasts Wednesday moved the Supreme Court for bail – citing the precedent set in granting the relief to actor Sunjay Dutt.
They include Yusuf Abdul Razak Memon and Essa alias Anjum Abdul Razak Memon, the brothers of Tiger Memon, the fugitive mastermind behind the serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured hundreds of others.
The duo have been handed life sentences for their role in executing the terror operation.
Tiger Memon’s sister-in-law Rubina Suleiman Memon and his foster sister Mubina alias Baya Moosa Bhiwandiwala have also sought bail.
Rubina is the wife of Tiger Memon’s eldest brother Suleiman Memon and has been handed a life term. Mubina has been sentenced to five years in jail.
Mubina had been sentenced June 14 and the other three on July 27.
All four have sought bail on the ground that the detailed and reasoned judgments of Special Judge P.D. Kode were yet to be delivered to them. It was on this ground that the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Dutt earlier this month. The actor has received a five-year term for illegally possessing arms.
Their counsel also pointed out that, like Dutt, the four Memons were on bail till the order on their sentencing was pronounced and that they too were entitled to similar relief.
On Wednesday, counsel for the Memons approached a bench of judges B.N. Agarwal and P.P. Naolekar to apprise it of their bail plea pending with the court’s registry and pleaded for an early hearing.
The bench, however, rejected their plea and said the bail applications would be heard only on Sep 7 as had already been notified.
At this, the counsel, who included senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, sought the issue of notice on the bail plea – but the bench rejected this too.
Of the two women who have sought bail, Mubina stands a fair chance of getting the relief. This is because another woman, Zaibunissa Quazi, who too had been sentenced for five years, has already been granted bail by the apex court along with Dutt.
She was granted bail on the grounds that she was not delivered the copy of the detailed judgment of the trial court, convicting her. Like Dutt, she too has been ordered to surrender the moment she is delivered the copy of the verdict.
But the three other Meomns may find it difficult securing bail from the apex court as they have been sentenced for life imprisonment.
Yakub, another brother of Tiger, has been awarded death sentence for his role in the Mumbai blast. Yakub, Yusuf, Essa and Rubina were all found guilty of hatching the terror plot.
Essa was charged with conspiracy and allowing his flat in Al-Husseni building in Mahim suburb to be used for conspiracy meetings and storing arms, ammunition and explosives. Yusuf and Rubina were slapped with similar charges.
Mubina alias Bhiwandiwala had allowed her flat to be used for meetings in which the plan to trigger the serial blasts on March 12, 1993 was finalised.