By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday suspended the capital punishment of a man convicted for killing four people during the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai, making him seventh person in the case to be granted relief.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan stayed the death sentence of Pervez Nazir Ahmed Shaikh who in a petition challenged his conviction and capital punishment by Mumbai’s anti-terror court.
The bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice M.K. Sharma, also issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Shaikh’s petition.
Shaikh was sentenced to death for causing the deaths of four people and injuries to 21 others March 12, 1993. He parked an RDX-laden scooter in Katha Bazar in south Mumbai, which was exploded.
He also planted and exoploded a suitcase filled with RDX in the Sea Rock Hotel in Mumbai’s suburban Bandra.
The bench also issued a notice to the CBI on a petition by another convict, Moolchand Sampathraj Shah, sentenced to five years in jail for his role in the conspiracy behind the terror bombings.
Shah was convicted for giving financial assistance to Tiger Memon, the absconding mastermind behind the terror attack. Additional Session Judge P.D. Kode of the Mumbai anti-terror court had also imposed a fine of Rs.500,000 on Shah. Shah later challenged his conviction in the apex court.
On Monday the Supreme Court stayed the death sentence of Abdul Ghani Turk, convicted for killing 88 people during the bombings.
The apex court has earlier suspended death sentence of Tiger Memon’s accountant brother Yakub Memon, Mohammed Mushtaq Moosa Tarani, Asgar Yusuf Mukadam, Zakir Hussain Noor Mohammed Sheikh and Mohammed Shoaib Ghansar.
A total of 12 convicts of the Mumbai terror bombing case have been awarded the capital punishment. The remaining five are Shahnawaz Qureshi, Iqbal Yusuf Shaikh, Feroz Malik, Abdul Khan and Farooq Pawle.