Click to play videoMumbai: A special TADA court hearing the 1993 Mumbai blasts case has held as guilty Mohammad Shoaib Kasam Ghansar on charges of conspiracy and murder.
Ghansar was the mastermind of the Zaveri Bazaar blast and had parked a scooter laden with explosives in the bazaar that exploded and killed 17 people.
He is currently lodged in jail. The prosecution is likely to plead for death sentence for Ghansar.
"Mohammad Ghansar, accused of masterminding the Zaveri Bazaar blast that killed 17 people, has been found guilty. The prosecution will be pleading for a death sentence," announced public prosecuter Ujjwal Nikam.
However, the verdict for accused no. 10 to 13 will not be announced on Thursday, court sources said.
Forty-three-year-old Ghansar is the accused no. 9 and the fifth in the Mumbai blasts case (after the four Memons) to be held guilty.
Ghansar is also the first of Tiger Memon's hit men to be sentenced and has 14 charges against him - including charges under Section 3 TADA act and Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code - the punishment of which could range from five years in jail to life imprisonment.
Said Ghansar's lawyer, Farhana Shah, "They are being tried under Section 120b and Section 32 and face either life imprisonment or death penalty."
Who is Ghansar
Ghansar studied till Class VII, quit school in 1977 and worked as a mechanic and an electrician.
He later went to Saudi Arabia for work where he became a partner at a shop called "Al-Panna" at the Heera Panna shopping complex
On March 11, Ghansar was taken to Tiger Memon by Tiger's manager where he was told to take an explosive-laden Bajaj Chetak scooter and park it at Zaveri Bazaar which he did knowing fully well that the scooter was loaded.
He was an witness to all the explosive filled vehicles being readied in Tiger's garage in al-Husseini building in Mahim.
He parked the scooter at 0215 hrs on April 12, 1993, went to a mosque, prayed for forgiveness and went back home. He also reportedly went to the Sahar International Airport and picked up the boarding passes for Tiger.
Accused number 10 to 13 include:
Next page: Memons in the dock
Memons in the dock
The TADA court is also likely to sentence the four convicted members of the Memon family - Yakub, Essa, Rubina and Yusuf - on Thursday as well as 22 additional key accused.
While in the first half, the court would declare the verdict on accused numbers 9 to 13 - the key conspirators in the Zaveri Bazaar blast that killed 17 people on March 12, 1993 - the second half would witness the sentencing arguments of the Memons.
The fate of 17 others, all of them facing serious charges, will probably be decided on Thurday.
The court was to discuss the quantum of sentence for four guilty Memons on Wednesday, but was adjourned.
However, if Day Two was slow, Thursday promises to be action-packed as the prosecution wants death penalty for Yakub Memon.
On Wednesday, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam urged the court that the arguments on the quantum of punishment to the convicted members of the Memon family may be held after the verdict on those who allegedly planted the bombs at different places in Mumbai was announced.
“The cases of those who are in custody should be dealt with first and we have requested the court for this,” Nikam said.
(With inputs from Ruksh Chatterji, Deborah Grey and Arun Gopalakrishnan)
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