Its almost six years after the 2003 blasts at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, three members of the banned Laskar-e-Toiba are convicted to DEATH by Special Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) Court.
POTA judge M R Puranik convicted Ashrat Ashrat Ansari (32), Hanif Sayed Anees (46) and his wife Fehmida Sayed (43) who face a death penalty for their role in carrying out the blasts which also left around 100 injured. The Trio were convicted under various charges including criminal conspiracy and murder, under POTA IPC, Explosive Substances Act, etc. The sum total of the consecutive sentences runs to four life imprisonments, three death punishments and 44 years of added imprisonments for each of the three accused.
Fahmeeda broke down outside the court while her husband did not react and stood calm by her side. Ashrat said: "Is andhe kanoon se kya insaaf milega (what justice can you get when the law is blind). The court ruled the case was not just "the rarest of the rare in general sense but in exceptional sense as well" since the trio plotted these two blasts as they were not satisfied by earlier two low intensity blasts in BEST buses that claimed "just two lives." Brutal and cruel intentions of the accused were convincingly established by special public prosecutor Mr Ujwal Nikam who, in turn, gave unqualified credit to Mumbai Police's Crime Branch for investigating the terror attack professionally proving that the bombings were executed by the trio at the behest of the Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba.
Two other accused, Mohammed Ansari Ladoowala and Mohammed Hasan Batterywala, were discharged from the case by POTA court after Supreme Court upheld a POTA review committee report that there was no case against the duo.
