Five men who underwent weapons training in Pakistan were convicted by the TADA court of being part of the “outer ring” of the 1993 serial blasts conspiracy.
MUMBAI: Five men who underwent weapons training in Pakistan were convicted by the TADA court on Friday of being part of the “outer ring” of the 1993 serial blasts conspiracy.
Judge PD Kode handed convictions to Gul Mohammed (34), Mohammed Hanif Usman Shaikh (40), Mohammed Issak (38), Shaikh Hussain (40), and Usman Man Khan Shaikh (43) on Friday for undergoing training and attending conspiratorial meetings in Dubai between January and March 1993.
With this, the total number of convictions in the case has touched 25.
The five were taken to Dubai by Dawood Ibrahim’s henchman Salim Kurla. Their passports did not reflect the Pakistan visit as the prime conspirators managed to skip the immigration formalities. But their confessions, which were accepted by the court, gave details of the training in Pakistan. Kurla was killed in a police encounter in 1998.
Apart from learning to use rifles and pistols, the men were taught to make petrol and RDX bombs. Judge Kode held that the nature of training received suggested their complicity.
All five men were arrested in 1993 and spent about five years in jail until they were released on bail.
After his conviction, Gul Mohammed, a marble worker, withdrew into a shell and refused to talk to the others. Hanif and Issak, both car mechanics from Girgaum, looked shocked and bitter. Issak was initially released on bail in 1994, but surrendered after he was shot at in 1996. He was granted bail later that year and had lately been delivering lunchboxes to four of the accused, including Abu Salem.
Shaikh Hussain, a hawker from Andheri, was worried about his wife and six children, while Usman Shaikh, an estate agent from Jogeshwari, appeared surprised.
Friday’s judgment represents the second instance of the court upholding the CBI’s case that outlines the Pakistani connection to the blasts. The court had earlier convicted Shahnawaz Qureshi, who had planted explosives at Dadar’s Plaza cinema, guilty of undergoing weapons training in Pakistan.
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