An anti-terror court will next month sentence the 100 people convicted of plotting a day of bombings in 1993 that left 257 people dead in India's worst terrorist attacks, lawyers said Wednesday. The court delivered its verdicts on the 123 accused in the Mumbai bombings last December after a decade of trials.
"Judge P.D. Kode will commence the sentencing on April 19," chief prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP in India's financial hub. "We expect the process to be complete in two days."
One of the most high-profile convicts is Bollywood superstar Sanjay Dutt, who is out on bail. The 47-year-old Dutt was found guilty last November of illegal weapons possession but cleared of a more serious charge of conspiracy in the deadly bombings that included an attack on the city's stock exchange. The burly actor, who was freed on bail in 1995 after serving 18 months in jail, has insisted he was only armed to protect his family.
The "Black Friday" attacks were allegedly organised by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated underworld in revenge for deadly Hindu-Muslim religious clashes a few months earlier. The alleged masterminds of the blasts, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, are on the run. Indian investigators say they were aided by Pakistan's intelligence service, but Islamabad has denied any link. Judge Kode is hearing arguments filed by 69 of the convicts who want the terrorism charges against them dropped.
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