Mumbai: A special court on June 2 exempted 84 accused in the 1993 bomb blast case till June 16 and reserved its order until June 3 on joining co-accused Mustaffa Majnu in the trial.

Actor Sanjay Dutt and two other accused were not present in the court. Sanjay has been exempted till June-end as he has gone abroad with the permission of the judge to perform stage shows while co- accused Salim Khan Durrani and Mohammed Iqbal could not appear, as they were sick. The court exempted the duo till June 5.

About 30 accused, lodged in central prison, were also produced before the court of designated judge P D Kode.

After hearing arguments at length, the court reserved its order on joining co-accused Majnu Mustafa in the trial. He was deported recently from Dubai and arrested at the stage when trial in the main case has already reached its fag end.

In case of Majnu, a legal issue has cropped up because his name does not figure in the list of accused or absconding accused filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the court. His involvement figured in the confession of co-accused.

The court has asked CBI to produce on June 9 witnesses to tender evidence against co-accused Ejaz Pathan. Six accused whose names figure in the confession of Pathan have been told to remain present when the witnesses were examined. The accused are Mohammed Dawood, Babulal Kasam, Sultan-e- Rome, Shahnawaz Khan, Etyeshyam and Manoj Kumar Gupta.

Altogether 684 witnesses have deposed so far in the trial that commenced in 1995. About 13,000 pages have been recorded as evidence.

PTI