Mumbai: On certain conditions, a special court on March 3 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 file a report by March 10 on the whereabouts of the absconding accused.

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, Anees Ibrahim, Mohammed Dossa and Javed Chikna, are absconding and believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

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.

About 35 other accused are lodged in central prison since last nine years. On December 9, CBI had wound up its arguments and closed the case.

The trial commenced on June 30, 1995. CBI examined 687 witnesses and recorded their evidence running into 13,000 pages. Thirteen explosions shattered the city on March 12, 1993, killing 257 people and injuring 713.

PTI