By IANS
Mumbai : A special anti-terrorism court Wednesday sentenced to death one more person convicted of the deadly bombings that killed 257 people in Mumbai in 1993, taking the number of those sent to the gallows in these cases to 11.
Judge Pramod Kode of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) Court pronounced five death sentences and two life terms for Farooq Pawle, who was found guilty of planting an explosives-laden vehicle at the Air India building in south Mumbai – the worst of the serial bombings that killed 20 people.
Pawle was also convicted of planting another RDX-laden vehicle near the Shiv Sena headquarters in Dadar in central Mumbai, where four people were killed and nearly 50 injured.
He was awarded the capital punishment on five counts, which included criminal conspiracy, commission of terrorist act, destroying property and murder.
Reading out the sentences, Special TADA Judge Kode said: "There can be no other sentence but death for such a person who has committed so many heinous offences. He was not only involved in the conspiracy throughout, but also had illegally gone to Pakistan for weapons training and also attended conspiracy meetings with absconding prime accused Tiger Memon."
Apart from participating in the attack near Air India building, "Pawle had also planted a Maruti van with RDX and a timer device at the Lucky Petrol pump near the Shiv Sena party headquarters in Dadar. The explosion resulted in the death of four people and injuries to scores of others," the court noted.
It said Pawle and others had surveyed the Air India building and the Bombay Stock Exchange on March 10, 1993 – only two days before the bombings.
"Had the petrol pump exploded, the devastation and deaths would have been unimaginable," the judge said.
After a long-drawn trial, the special court has so far handed out death sentences to 11 of the 100 convicts, while giving life sentences to 17.
Eight convicts, including Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt who is convicted for possessing illegal weapons and four members of Tiger Memon's family, are yet to be sentenced by the court.
"The sentencing of the remaining eight convicts will be taken up by the court on July 27," special public prosecutor Ujjal Nikam told IANS outside the TADA court.