Click to play videoMumbai: A TADA court hearing the 1993 Mumbai blasts case has asked all convicted, including actor Sanjay Dutt who was convicted of possessing illegal weapons, but was acquitted of conspiracy charges, to be present in the court on Wednesday.
The court is likely to give quantum of punishment to all the convicted starting Wednesday.
The court had held 100 people guilty in the blasts case while it acquitted 23. In the March 1993 blasts, 257 people had died.
Dutt has pleaded with the court to let him off on probation for good conduct but it's still too early for him to breathe easy.
After being absolved of charges under the dreaded TADA Act, 69 other people convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blast case have sought parity with the actor.
The 69 people convicted of similar charges as Dutt in the case are asking for relief under the Probabtion of Offenders Act. They assert that the TADA court must give them a clean chit because they are not ‘terrorists’ in the real sense.
The list of convicts includes Abdul Ghani Turk who was found guilty of planting an RDX laden vehicle at Century Bazaar. The 69 convicts are asserting following points in their defense:
- They were not really terrorists and that their actions were a direct result of the Babari Masjid demolition.
- They were not in the right frame of mind and suffered what sociologists term as a 'Mass Sociogenic Illness.'
- They claim that their behaviour had been exemplary and no intelligence agency filed any report against them till date.
The petitioners claim that on the aforementioned grounds, their case should be seen in the same light as that of Dutt, which means they, too, should be entitled to relief under the Probation of Offenders Act.
However, the lawyers on both sides are being tight lipped about the matter.
(With inputs from Deborah Grey)
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