'93 blast accused gets bail after 13 years in jail

MUMBAI: Thirteen years after he was arrested in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, Firoz Aman Maliq, secured interim bail from a TADA court on humanitarian grounds.

Firoz was released for a month on July 21 by designated TADA Judge P D Kode who allowed his plea to meet his ailing mother in hospital.

Firoz, charged with hurling hand grenades at fishermen's colony in Mahim, Central Mumbai, on March 12, 1993, when serial explosions rocked the city, has been asked to surrender on August 21, his lawyers Subhash Kanse and Farhana Shah said.

Firoz wrote a letter from jail to the judge urging for bail as he wanted to be at the side of his mother in hospital. He said his mother was suffering from diabetes and her two kidneys had failed to function.

He also produced the medical papers from Lilavati hospital to show that his mother was undergoing treatment for a serious kidney ailment.

The court granted him bail on providing a surety of Rs five lakhs. Since the amount was big, it took some time for the accused to provide for the surety. Finally, he was released from central prison on July 21.