Court awards death sentence to three

Court awards death sentence to three
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=89683

 Mumbai, July 18: The special TADA court in Mumbai on Wednesday awarded the death sentence for the first time to three men convicted in the 1993 serial blasts case for planting explosives, saying their act caused the death of innocent citizens and brought "disgrace to Muslims". Abdul Ghani Ismail Turk, Mohammad Mushtaq Musa Tarani and Pervez Ahmed Nasir Shaikh are the first among the 100 people convicted in the case to get capital punishment.

While announcing their sentences, Judge P D Kode said none of them were directly affected by the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya and subsequent riots in Mumbai -- which was cited by the defence as the conspirators' justification for the blasts.

"Persons who committed such heinous crimes, trying to take advantage of events which have happened earlier and which haven't affected them, had unnecessarily brought disgrace to the Muslim community, which among other communities has been a pioneer in nation-building," Kode said. The three men displayed no emotion as they heard the sentences.

Turk (51) parked an RDX-loaded jeep in Century Bazar, near the passport office at Worli in central Mumbai, that killed 88 people (though the chargesheet puts the number at 113). Another 159 people were injured and property worth Rs 2.41 crore was destroyed in the explosion that occurred at 2:45 pm on March 12, 1993.

This blast caused the maximum casualties among the series of 12 explosions that killed a total of 257 people on that day.

Turk was also directed by the court to pay a total fine of Rs 2.75

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