Mumbai: On certain conditions, a special court on February 10 exempted for three weeks film actor Sanjay Dutt and 86 other accused in the 1993 bomb blast case, and directed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to produce the absconding accused by March 10.

The designated judge P D Kode fixed March 10 as the deadline for producing the absconding accused before the court. He asked CBI to inform the prospects of producing the absconding accused to enable the court to fix the date for judgement.

CBI was warned that after March 10 they would not be allowed to add any accused to the existing list as the trial had reached its fag end.

About 34 accused, including Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Annes Ibrahim, Mohammed Dossa and Javed Chikna, are absconding and believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

In keeping with a judicial directive, 84 accused on February 10 appeared before the court. Those who did not turn up were Issaq Hajwani, Mohammed Sultan Sayed and Shaikh Kasam Babulal.

Hajwani is not well, Mohammed Sultan's relative is not well and Shaikh Kasam is recovering from injuries he sustained during a shoot-out recently, defence lawyers Subhash Kanse and Farhana Shah informed the court.

Exempting the accused till March 3, the judge warned the accused not to leave the city limits without permission during the period. They were told not to establish contact with absconding accused in this case and ensure that they were represented by their lawyers in the court.

Outside the court, fans of Sanjay Dutt gathered in large numbers to take a close look at the actor.

PTI