Mumbai: A special court on August 11 exempted 86 accused on bail in the bomb blast case, including film actor Sanjay Dutt, from personal appearance till August 23 and directed them to appear without fail on August 25.

Eighty-two accused, including Dutt, appeared before the designated judge P D Kode on August 11 to mark their presence while 30 others lodged in central prison were also produced for the trial.

The judge had summoned all the accused. Of the 86 accused on bail, four did not appear on August 11, as they were not well.

Their lawyers Subhash Kanse and Farhana Shah filed applications praying for exemption on medical grounds.

The four accused who sought exemption on health grounds included Hanifa Memon and Yusus Memon, mother and brother of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon. The other two are Sayed Abdul Rehman and Abbas Dawood.

Dutt just returned from his month-long tour of South Africa and Tanzania for shooting of a Hindi feature film.

He is facing the charge of possessing an AK-56 rifle and destroying the weapon. Dutt has already denied the charges.

The court had on July 7 modified the charge of conspiracy framed against Dutt and 115 others with a view to include the name of co-accused Majnu Mustaffa, brother of absconding accused Mohammed Dossa.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) examined 686 witnesses and the evidence has crossed 13,000 pages. The accused are charged with carrying out serial blasts on March 12, 1993, which killed 257 persons and injured 713 besides damaging property worth Rs 27 crore.

PTI