The number of convictions in the trial is set to hit 100 if special TADA Judge P D Kode convicts the remaining six accused for their involvement in the Mahim fisherman colony incident. So far 23 accused have been acquitted of all charges in spite of them spending time in custody, some of them for more than two years. However, till the judgment is out they will have to do rounds of court whenever they are called.

The acquitted accused are Suleman Memon, Hanifa Memon, Raheen Memon, Ashfaq Havaldhar, Moiddin Cheruvattam, Shakil Shahbuddin Shaikh, Anant Bhoir, Fazal Rehman, Ismail Patel, Manzoor Qureshi, Rukshana Jariwala, Sayed Ismail Kadri, Shaikh Babulal, Sultan-e-Rum, Ajay Marwah, Devidas Ghule, Abdul Aziz, Mohammed Iqbal Shaikh, Murad Khan and Ahmed Mansoor.

Of the acquitted accused, three, Krishna Mokal, Krishna Pingle and M M More, were police constables from Srivardhan police station in Raigad district. They were suspended from service following arrest and had spent more than two years in custody.

The long arms of law have not spared the accused law enforcers also.Five customs officers including Additional Collector Customs S N Thapa and Assistant Collector of Customs, R K Singh have been found guilty for letting smuggled arms and ammunition into the country. Five police officers, including one sub-inspector V K Patil, also have been found guilty.

The Memon angle

Tiger Memon (Ibrahim Abdul Razak Memon), believed to be Dawood Ibrahim’s right hand, is the most wanted accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. There is reason to believe that Tiger Memon is now in Karachi, Pakistan and moves under aliases to evade authorities. Memon is known to have recruited frustrated Muslim youth to carry out the bombings, while flying out of Mumbai to Dubai, the morning before the blasts. His fortune has been estimated to be in millions, with operations in money-laundering, property, stocks and industry.

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