Bombay High Court upholds death penalty for 3 convicts in 2003 twin blasts case

The tragic 2003 twin Mumbai blasts left 54 dead and over 180 injured.

The Bombay High Court has upheld the death sentence awarded to three convicted LeT terrorists in the 2003 twin Mumbai blasts, which left 54 dead and over 180 injured. Upholding the Pota court's 2009 order, the HC dismissed the appeals of the accused.

In a first, a married couple has been awarded the death sentence in a terror case. Hanif Syed (49) and his wife Fehmida Syed (46) were handed out the death sentence by the special Pota court in 2009.

The couple was found guilty of planting two highintensity bombs in crowded locations in Mumbai in August 2003.

Another accomplice, Ashrat Ansari (35), has also been given the death sentence. The trio, along with fourth accused Nasir, had executed the bomb blast at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazar in Mumbai on August 25, 2003.

Nasir was shot by the police in an encounter later. The prosecution had said the LeT had used a family to carry out the attack in order to avenge the "atrocities" inflicted on Muslim families in the 2002 Godhra riots.

The trio was charged under the IPC, Explosive Substances Act and the stringent Pota for its role in the conspiracy and the bomb blasts. The Pota court also held them guilty for the July 2003 blast in a BEST bus in suburban Ghatkopar, which claimed two lives. The prosecution had also alleged that the trio had planted another bomb on a bus in the suburban SEEPZ area in Jogeshwari on December 2, 2002. However, the bomb did not explode.

The trial saw 103 witnesses being examined. Another accused turned approver during the trial and two others, Mohammed Ansari Ladoowala and Mohammed Hasan Batterywala, were discharged. The judgment was long awaited as the division bench of justices A.M. Khanwilkar and P.D. Kode had reserved the verdict on November 12, 2011.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikkam, who argued the case for the government, expressed his happiness at the verdict. "It is a significant judgment. It might take some more legal procedures before the death sentence is executed. However, we are confident that the execution will happen in due course, which should be soon," he added.

On August 25, 2003, the three accused - along with the two daughters of Hanif - hired a taxi and reached the Gateway of India with RDX. They left the bag in the taxi and told the cab driver that they would return after lunch. From there, they hired another taxi and reached Zaveri Bazar, the site where the second bomb went off minutes after the blast at the Gateway of India.

The trio was arrested on August 31, 2003, under Pota regulations.

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