By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday temporarily suspended the death sentences of two more terrorists, convicted for their role in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran stayed the death sentences of Mohammed Mushtaq Moosa Tarani and Asgar Yusuf Mukadam, two of the 12 who have been given capital punishment in the case. With this, the Supreme Court has now given a reprieve to five of the convicts.
Tarani was sentenced to death for planting an RDX-loaded scooter in Sheikh Memon Street that did not explode. He had also planted a bomb in Hotel Centaur though there were no casualties in the explosion.
Asgar Mukadam was sentenced to death for planting an RDX-filled Maruti van at Plaza cinema in Mumbai. The explosion had killed 10 and injured 36.
The bench stayed the sentences of the duo while admitting their petitions challenging their conviction by Special Judge P.D. Kode of Mumbai’s designated anti-terror court.
A higher court suspends the death sentence as a routine while admitting the convict’s appeal against the conviction.
While convicting 100 people for their various roles in the Mumbai 1993 terror bombing case, Special Judge Kode awarded the death sentence to 12.
The bench Friday stayed the death sentence of terror convict Zakir Hussain Noor Mohammed Sheikh, who had thrown a powerful bomb in Mahim’s fisher colony of the western metropolis during the terror attack. The blast triggered by Sheikh killed three people and injured six.
After suspending Sheikh’s death penalty, the bench adjourned the hearing on his petition, tagging it with the petitions of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and other convicts of the case.
The apex court Jan 28 suspended the death penalty of fugitive underworld don Tiger Memon’s accountant brother Yakub Memon, who was awarded the death penalty for hatching the conspiracy, funding the terror attack and supplying weapons for it.
The other person who was given a reprieve from the apex court is Mohammed Shoaib Ghansar, whose death sentence was suspended Feb 21.
Ghansar had been ordered “to be hanged by neck till death” for parking a scooter filled with research-developed-explosive opposite Mumbai Stock Exchange and triggering the blast. The blast killed 17 people and injured 57.
The others on death row for their roles in the serial blasts that had killed a total of 257 people are: Abdul Ghani Turk, Mushtaq Musa Tarani, Pervez Sheikh, Asgar Mukadam, Shahnawaz Qureshi, Iqbal Yusuf Shaikh, Feroz Malik, Abdul Khan and Farooq Pawle.