Thursday, August 10 2006 16:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A special court here today (Aug 10, 2006) postponed the verdict on the 1993 terror attacks to Sep 12 on a legal technicality over a petition pending in the Bombay High Court by Abu Salem, one of the accused.

However, the designated TADA court (the now defunct Terrorist and Disruptive (Prevention) Activities) of P.D. Kode began reading out the judgment at the Arthur Road jail premises amid heavy security and intense media glare.

The postponement of the final verdict was decided after the defence appealed to the judge saying that the writ petition filed by Salem was pending in the Bombay High Court and the pronouncement on it was expected Aug 14.

The high court had deferred till Aug 14 the petition, which challenged the TADA court's order to separate his trial from the other accused.

"Today the TADA court commenced the judgment of the 1993 serial blasts case. The final verdict will be pronounced Sep 12," the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) special lawyer Ujwal Nikam told the media outside the jail.

"Abu Salem's defence lawyers had pleaded that the entire judgment be postponed in the backdrop of his petition pending in the high court. But as there is no stay order over the TADA court's judgment, it decided to proceed," Nikam said.

"We told the TADA court that Salem's plea was a delaying tactic," he said.

Salem has contended in his plea that separating his trial in the blasts case from the other accused would violate the agreement between the Portuguese and Indian governments under which he was extradited last year.

He contended that according to extradition conditions, he was to stand the ongoing trial and not a fresh one.

Last month, the CBI had pleaded for the separation of the trial of Salem and his associate Riyaz Siddiqi from the other accused, lest the entire trial be delayed.

The TADA judge had accepted the CBI plea and ordered separation of trial June 13.

Thursday's ruling comes 13 years after a series of 13 devastating blasts on March 11, 1993 killed 257 and injured about 700. It is India's longest criminal trial against terrorists it began June 30, 1995 and ended Sep 19, 2003.

According to police officials, the court may take more than two weeks to deliver the entire verdict because evidence from a record 686 witnesses in over 13,000 pages would have to be read out.

There was unprecedented security in and around the special court. Hours before the special court was to pronounce its verdict, security was stepped up across the city, particularly around the Arthur Road jail in central Mumbai.

Given the recent terror bombings and the tenuous peace in the city, authorities made special arrangements and put in place traffic restrictions.

Security in and around the court had been tightened since Wednesday and prohibitory orders banning the assembly of five or more people imposed in and around the premises.

The CBI has named around 200 accused. Of this, 29 were discharged due to lack of evidence and 29 others, including prime accused Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon and Mohammed Dossa, were declared absconders.

Dawood Ibrahim allegedly masterminded the blasts at the instance of the Pakistani intelligence to avenge the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, the CBI has said in the chargesheet.

Amongst the accused out on bail is Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, son of late actor and former central minister Sunil Dutt and brother of Congress MP Priya Dutt.