New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily suspended the capital punishment awarded to a convict for killing 88 people during the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai.

A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan stayed the death sentence of Abdul Ghani Turk following his petition challenging his conviction and sentence.

The bench, which included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice M.K. Sharma, issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Turk was sentenced to death for parking an RDX-filled jeep near Century Bazaar in Mumbai and triggering a blast had killed 88 people and injured 159. The series of terror attacks March 12, 1993 had claimed a total of 257 lives in the metro.

The bench also issued notice to the CBI on a petition by another convict Shaikh Ali Shaikh Umar, condemned to life term for his conspiratorial role.

Shaikh was also imposed a fine of Rs.150,000 for his various roles in the conspiracy, including loading various vehicles with explosives, arranging the landing of arms at various points along the Mumbai coast and roping in other accused in the case.

Turk is the sixth convict on the death row who has challenged his conviction and has got his sentence stayed.

The higher court suspends the death sentence as a routine while admitting a convict's appeal against the conviction.

The apex court had stayed April 7 the death sentences of two convicts, Mohammed Mushtaq Moosa Tarani and Asgar Yusuf Mukadam.

Tarani was sentenced to death for planting an RDX-loaded scooter in Shaikh Memon Street that did not explode. He had also planted a bomb in Hotel Centaur, though there were no casualties in the explosion.

Mukadam was sentenced to death for planting a RDX-filled Maruti van at Plaza cinema in Mumbai. The explosion had killed 10 people and injured 36.

The apex court had stayed April 4 the death sentence of Zakir Hussain Noor Mohammed Sheikh, condemned to the gallows for throwing a powerful bomb in Mahim's Fisher colony.

The blast triggered by Sheikh had killed three people and injured six others.

The apex court had suspended Jan 28 the death penalty of fugitive underworld don Tiger Memon's accountant brother Yakub Memon, who too was condemned to the gallows for his role in the terror attack.

Yakub Memon had been awarded the death penalty for hatching the conspiracy, funding the terror attack and supplying weapons for it.

Yet another convict, who has got the reprieve from the apex court on his capital punishment is Mohammed Shoaib Ghansar. The apex court suspended his sentence Feb 21.

Ghansar had been sentenced for parking a scooter filled with explosives opposite the Bombay Stock Exchange and triggering the blast. It killed 17 people and maimed 57.

Besides Yakub Memon, Ghansar, Sheikh, Turk, Tarani and Mukadam, the six others, who are on death row, include Pervez Sheikh, Shahnawaz Qureshi, Iqbal Yusuf Shaikh, Feroz Malik, Abdul Khan and Farooq Pawle.

Source : IANS