TADA court in Mumbai wants trial in 1993 serial blasts to end this year
The court has given time till the year-end to both prosecution and defence lawyers to complete their final arguments.
The designated court of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) has set a deadline to complete the trial against the second set of accused of the 1993 serial blasts case.
The court has given time till the year-end to both prosecution and defence lawyers to complete their final arguments.
Seven accused — Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Firoz Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, Karimullah Shaikh, Mohammad Tahir Merchant alias Tahir Taklya and Abdul Qayyum — are facing trial in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case.
The special public prosecutor Deepak Salvi concluded arguments in the case in July this year. The defence lawyers began their final arguments in August.
Advocate Sudeep Pasbola for Abu Salem and Abdul Qayyum, advocate Wahab Khan for Khan and advocate Farhana Shah for Karimulla have concluded their arguments.
The final arguments for Dossa and Tahir are yet to be concluded.
While the defence lawyers advocate Rizwan Merchant for Dossa and Pasbola for Tahir sought more time to conclude the final arguments, special judge GA Sanap refused and set a deadline of this month-end.
“This trial has been expedited by the Supreme Court of India. So, this court has to give priority to the early disposal of the trial,” the judge observed.
The court has asked to all defence lawyers, who have concluded their arguments, to submit their written arguments by Tuesday. Merchant has been given time till the first week of December to conclude the final arguments and submit them in writing. The prosecution has been time till last week of December to file submissions in reply to the defence lawyers’ arguments.