1993 Mumbai blasts: Court rejects plea of 2 accused seeking to exclude confessional statements

Mumbai, Sep 12 (PTI) A special court here has rejected the plea filed by two accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, seeking to discard the confessional statements that were part of the previous trial.

Special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, (TADA) judge V D Kedar, in an order passed on September 10, ruled that it did not find merit in the pleas filed by Shoeb Qureshi and Yusuf Ismail Shaikh, who are currently facing trial in the case.

The two accused contended that the confessions were inadmissible as they were not tried jointly with the individuals who made the statements.

However, the court reasoned that the same issues were raised by the accused persons in the case, including Abu Salem and Mustafa Ahmed Dosa, in the second part of the trial and were rejected by a predecessor judge.

The court stressed that it did not find merit in their plea in view of the fact that the previous judge in the second phase of the trial already dealt with the same issues and "ruled that confessions of co-accused recorded in the first part of the trial would be used against co-accused in subsequent part of the trial".

Further, the special judge noted that the accused convicted in the second part of the trial in 2017 have challenged the judgement before the apex court.

"The said appeals are pending for hearing. Therefore, the issues as raised by the present applicants are sub-judiced before the Supreme Court," the judge added.

Qureshi and Shaikh were not among the original 189 accused persons for whom the chargesheet was filed on November 4, 1993.

Their names were mentioned in a supplementary chargesheet and they were later declared proclaimed offenders. The duo was arrested on May 21, 2022, after the first two parts of the trial had concluded.

Their prime contention was that as per the legal provisions, evidence of the witnesses with respect to confessions of the accused (in previous trial) are "irrelevant and inadmissible in the present matter".

They submitted that the confession of the co-accused is not "substantive evidence" and may only be taken into consideration to an extremely limited extent.

Therefore, the confessions of co-accused persons cannot be used unless accused persons have been charged and tried together, they added.

Special public prosecutor Deepak Salvi argued that the accused cannot take advantage of their own wrong by absconding and then pleading a bar of law.

The court, after hearing both sides, rejected the duo's plea.

The third phase of the trials in the 1993 bomb blasts case began against seven accused in October 2024.

As many as 12 bombs went off at different locations in Mumbai, killing 257 persons and injuring more than 700 others on March 12, 1993.

As the absconding accused in the case were arrested at different periods of time, the trial against them is held separately.

So far, the court has convicted 106 accused, including Yakub Memon and Abu Salem, in two separate trials.

The latest trial in the case began before special judge V D Kedar with the recording of the testimony of two witnesses.

Those facing the trial now are Farooq Mansoori alias Farooq Takla, Ahmed Lambu, Munaf Halari, Abu Bakar Sohaib Qureshi, Sayeed Qureshi and Yusuf Batka.

In the first phase of trial that ended in 2007, 100 people were convicted, of whom 12, including Yakub Memon, were sentenced to death.

While the sentence of the 11 accused was later changed to life term by the Supreme Court, Memon was hanged to death on July 30, 2015.

Memon had been convicted of conspiracy to arrange and finance the bombings.

In 2017, the special court had convicted six accused, of whom two were handed death sentences. PTI AVI NP