Decoding the blasts probe

Senior officials say today's order was a major achievement worth mentioning and its the success of a team work

Barely nine days after the 20th anniversary of the 1993 serial blasts in here, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence to Yakub Abdul Razak Memon and convicted Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt under the Arms Act, providing a much-needed boost to the city police. A senior official asserted on Thursday’s order was a “major achievement worth mentioning” and termed it “the success of team work”.

After the blasts, the Centre had appointed a special task force to carry out a comprehensive investigation. The task force was chaired by former Mumbai Police Commissioner M N Singh and comprised officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Intelligence Bureau and the Research & Analysis Wing.

The police had seized 3.5 tonnes of RDX, about 100 AK 47 rifles and 9 mm pistols, 500 grenades, 1,100 detonators and a large number of cartridges. It had also arrested about 450 people in connection with the blasts and had filed a 10,000-page charge sheet in court.

During the investigations, Sanjay Dutt was arrested in connection with illegal possession of arms. In 1993, a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court had awarded death sentence to 12 people, including Memon. The court had also sentenced 20 to life imprisonment; 46 others, including Sanjay Dutt, were given varying terms of imprisonment.

M N Singh welcomed on Thursday’s order. He told Business Standard: “I was confident about Dutt’s conviction. There was no doubt in my mind the court would uphold his conviction under the Arms Act. In my opinion, Sanjay Dutt’s acquittal from TADA was wrong; the state government should have challenged it in the apex court.” He added credit went to the team  of about 100 police personnel for working hard to investigate the blasts.