93 Mumbai blasts: Man who trafficked AK-56 from Dutt gets 10-yr RI

A man convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blast case for taking a firearm from Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and delivering it to some other person, was today sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment by a Special TADA court here.

Mumbai, May 21 : A man convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blast case for taking a firearm from Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and delivering it to some other person, was today sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment by a Special TADA court here.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs.50,000 on Manjur Ahmed.

"The court has announced sentence to one accused namely Manjur Ahmed. On January 18 (1991), he took an AK 56 rifle from cine actor Sanjay Dutt and delivered it to other co-accused. And therefore, the court has held him guilty and sentenced him 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 rupees," said Ujjwal Nikam, Special Public Prosecutor.

Nikam added that if Ahmed failed to pay the fine then he would require to undergo a sentence of one more year.

Earlier this morning, the court sentenced four police constables to six-year rigorous imprisonment in connection with the case.

The four policemen were also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 each.

The court had convicted the cops--Ashok Muleshwar, P M Mahadik, Ramesh Mali and SY Pashilkar--for assisting in bringing explosives into Mumbai before the blasts.

They were held guilty of providing assistance in a terrorist act, for which an individual can get imprisonment from five years to a life term.

The TADA court began pronouncing the quantum of sentence on the 100 convicts in the case on Friday. On the first day, it sentenced five people to three years imprisonment.

Delivering the verdict, Judge Pramod Kode also fined them Rs 25,000 each after they were found guilty under the Customs Act. The Customs Act bars the application of the Probation of Offenders Act (POA).

The five sent to jail were Yeshwant Bhoinkar, Abbas Dawood Shaikhdare, Shajehan Ibrahim Shaikhdhare, Rashid Alware and Sharif Khan Adhikari.

While Shaikhdhare and Bhoinkar were convicted for providing trawlers for bringing in RDX and weapons at Shekhadi, Alware and Adhikari were convicted for participation in the landing of the consignment.

The court has already formally acquitted 23 accused in the blast case, which killed 257 people and left over 700 people injured.

The prime accused in the case, Tiger Memon and his family are still absconding, and are reportedly living in Pakistan.

ANI