More than Rs 2 crore paid just as legal fees for Bombay blasts trial

The serial bomb blasts in Mumbai on March 12, 1993 left over 250 people dead, more than 700 injured and destroyed property worth crores of rupees. The trial which went on for 14 years was a massive exercise and a costly one too.

The Sunday Express used the Right to Information Act to find out the cost of the trial and this is what we found:

• Nearly Rs 2.5 crore was paid just as legal fees to the team of prosecutors. The Central Bureau of Investigation’s Special Task Force (divided between STF Mumbai and STF Delhi in 1993) spearheaded the investigation and paid the legal team (headed by advocate Ujwal Nikam) separately.

• While the Mumbai branch of the STF paid the bulk of the money

(Rs 1,69,67,165) , the Delhi branch, between 1996 and 2007, paid

Rs 66,54,114.

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• These figures don’t include other expenses incurred by the team— on travel, office and security.

The break-up of what the STF, Mumbai paid as legal fees is as follows:

Ujwal D Nikam, Special Public Prosecutor: Rs 14,87,805

Natrajan, Spl PP: Rs 88,82,051

AB Belgal, Spl PP: Rs 17,99,000

AM Desai, Spl PP: Rs 25,22,700

JR Madon, Spl PP: Rs 7,29,000

KS Shete, Spl PP: Rs 1,48,000

MI Sethna, PP: Rs 40,320

S B Jaisinghani, ASG: Rs 5,000

CS Sharma, Spl PP: Rs 53,289

—Seema Chishti

myrti@expressindia.com

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