Mumbai: The special TADA court on Wednesday sentenced five convicts to prison terms ranging from six to 14 years rigorous imprisonment for their role in the 1993 serial blasts. They included a former public servant, Tulshiram Dhondu Surve, who used to work as a watchman at the Wangani Microwave Tower.
Surve has been sentenced to nine years' rigorous imprisonment and directed to pay a total fine of Rs 55,000 on two counts of aiding and abetting a terrorist act and intentional omission of giving information of offence.
"Who were your real bosses: the government or the smugglers to whom you accorded such hospitality for a paltry amount of Rs 2,000?" special TADA judge P D Kode asked Surve. He was found guilty of allowing the use of government property on two occasions for transferring arms between two vehicles.
The alleged "operational in-charges" of the arms and ammunition landing at the Dighi coast — Uttam Potdar and Mohammed Lajpuria alias 'Mechanic Chacha' — were sentenced to 14 and 10 years' rigorous imprisonment respectively and directed to pay a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh each.
The TADA court had earlier convicted over a hundred people for their involvement in engineering the serial blasts in the city on March 12, 1993, which killed 257 and injured over 700 others.
Kode said Potdar was the 'main mind' in the arms landing as he negotiated with the police party at Dongar Phata and also facilitated the landing on behalf of one of the prime accused, Mohammed Dossa, who is absconding at present.
The court observed that both Potdar and Lajpuria were unaware of the material in the contraband till time of the landing operation and said the latter even objected to helping in landing anything apart from silver.
Two other convicts, accused No. 34 Abdul Aziz Haji Ghoratkar was sentenced to six years imprisonment while No 61 accused Sajjad Alam was jailed for seven years and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000.
(With PTI inputs)
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