Click to play videoMumbai: Actor Sanjay Dutt, charged with possessing an AK-56 rifle in the 1993 bomb blast case and destroying it with the help of friends, in Wednesday appeared before a TADA court in response to summons issued to him.
The summons were issued by designated Judge P D Kode, who had asked Sanjay and 25 other accused to appear before him for giving their attendance today.
The 25 other accused also appeared before the court, which is giving the verdict in phases and has exempted accused on bail, including Dutt, from personal appearance. However, they are summoned to the court periodically.
The court has so far not declared when it would give the verdict on the alleged complicity of Sanjay and a group of his friends who helped him in destroying the weapon.
It is the case of CBI that co-accused Baba Musa Chohan, Samir Hingora and Hanif Kadawala had gone to Sanjay's Bandra residence here at the instance of prime conspirator Anees Ibrahim and delivered three rifles and ammuntion to the actor. Sanjay allegedly retained one rifle and returned the rest.
It is also alleged that the weapons returned by Sanjay were then transported by co-accused Mansoor Ahmed to the house of another accused, Zebunisa Kazi. While Mansoor is in custody, Kazi has been granted bail.
Sanjay is also charged with destroying the weapon with the help of his friends - Yusuf Nullwala, Ajay Marwah, Kersi Adajania and Rusi Mulla. All of them have been granted bail.
CBI alleged that Sanjay was shooting in Mauritius when he learnt about his complicity from media reports. He asked his friends to go to his house and destroy the weapon. Later, the rifle was destroyed in a foundry
The court is also slated to deliver a verdict on the involvement of five accused who allegedly helped prime conspirators in carrying out the serial blasts which claimed 257 lives on March 12, 1993.
Those in the dock on Wednesday are Murad Ibrahim Khan, Asrafur Rehman Azimulla Shaikh, Sikandar Issar Hajwani, Issaq Mohammed Hajwani and Janardhan Pandurang Gambas.
All the five are charged under the provisions of IPC and TADA (P) Act.
Murad is charged with conspiracy, going to Dubai enroute Pakistan for arms training while Ashrafur Rehman is facing the charges of possessing 85 hand grenades, 350 electronic detonators, 3,270 live cartridges of AK-56 rifles which were part of the consignment smuggled by Tiger Memon for the serial blasts.
Sikandar is charged with conspiracy and taking part in weapons training at Sandheri village in Raigad besides possessing 13 hand grenades which he had dumped into the sea near Gandharwadi village in Raigad. It is the case of CBI that the hand grenades were later removed at the instance of another accused Issaq who disclosed Sikander's involvement.
Issaq is charged with weapons training at Sandheri village in Raigad. He is also charged with possessing 13 hand grenades which were dumped into the sea at Gandharwadi village in Raigad.
In another development, two accused, Muzammil Umar Kadri and Tulsiram Dhondu Surve, convicted on Monday, pleaded for leniency in sentence saying they were the only bread-earners in the family.
(With PTI inputs)
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