Move curative petition on sentence, SC to blast convict

The Supreme Court on Friday asked 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict Yusuf Mohsin Nulwala to file a curative petition to seek a reduction in his jail term.

Nulwala said he was wrongly convicted and sentenced for possessing a prohibited automatic AK-56 assault rifle while he was shown in possession of a non-prohibited semi-automatic AK-56.

Keeping Nulwala's petition pending, an apex court bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Prafulla C. Pant asked counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Nulwala, to move the curative petition to raise new grounds for seeking reduced sentence.

Nulwala had moved the apex court to seek reduction in his sentence from five years to three years.

Asking Salve to move a curative petition, Justice Gogoi said: "All orders of the court are not always correct or perfect. Whatever order we give, right or wrong, are final."

At the outset of the hearing, counsel Salve told the court that the point that Nulwala was in possession of a non-prohibited weapon was missed by all at every stage till it was pointed out by an expert.

"Everyone overlooked it until someone pointed it out," Salve told the court as it asked him: "You still have the option of filing the curative petition."

Along with Sanjay Dutt, the Supreme Court had on March 21, 2013, upheld the conviction of Nulwala under the Arms Act and sentenced him to five years in jail.

A TADA court had in 1993 awarded death sentence to 12 people.

The court had also sentenced 20 to life imprisonment and 46 others, including Sanjay Dutt, were given varying terms of imprisonment.

A series of 13 car bomb blasts had ripped through Mumbai on March 12, 1993.

The TADA court of Justice P.D. Kode had commenced trial on November 4, 1993, and pronounced its 4,230 page verdict on July 31, 2007.