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Blasts: Mumbai builder guilty
BY A CORRESPONDENT
November 23, 2006
The TADA court has held a Mumbai-based builder and an aide of prime prime conspirator Tiger Memon guilty for their complicity in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai.
The court pronounced the builder, Noor Mohammad Khan, guilty of storing in his godown 58 bags of RDX smuggled by Memon, who engineered the blasts, and later disposing of the bags in a creek. He was held guilty under section 5 of TADA (P) Act for possessing RDX and section 201 of IPC for concealing evidence.
However, the court has acquitted him for want of evidence to prove that he had agreed to store the explosives in his godown though it belonged to him. Thus he got a reprieve under section 6 of TADA and Explosive Substance Act. He was also acquitted of charges of conspiracy.
Meanwhile, Liaqat Ali Khan, another accused and an alleged aide of Tiger Memon was held guilty under sections 3 (3) of TADA (P) Act for aiding and abetting terrorist acts by allowing Memon and Yeda Yaqub to store 80 cartons of RDX at his godown in MIDC and transporting them to other places. He was also held guilty under sections 5 and 6 of Explosive Substance Act. The TADA court judge also accepted the confession of Liaqat while holding him guilty of offences under TADA (P) Act.
However, he was absolved of conspiracy charges because permission to store RDX was given by his father and not him, according to the court.
The Mumbai blasts case has up till Thursday seen 81 people being pronounced guilty. As many as 20 others have been acquitted. Actor Sanjay Dutt, have yet to receive the verdict.
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