1993 bombings case: Court rejects bail plea of Shoeb Qureshi

Special TADA court rejects bail plea of accused in 1993 Mumbai bombings case, citing evidence of involvement in the well-planned conspiracy.

MUMBAI: A special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court on Wednesday rejected the bail application of a 57-year-old accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings case.

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The accused, Shoeb Qureshi, was arrested from Gujarat in May 2022, 29 years after a series of powerful bomb blasts rocked the city and left 257 people dead, more than 713 injured and destroyed property worth ₹27 crore on March 12, 1993. The blasts occurred in important buildings like the Stock Exchange, Air India, Sahar International Airport, Five Star Hotels, and busy commercial locations such as Century Bazar.

Following these blasts, the local police and DCB CID registered 27 FIRs and a chargesheet was filed against 188 accused.

Qureshi was arrested at Ahmedabad airport after he allegedly entered the country using a fake passport and fake immigration certificate. The special court declared Qureshi a proclaimed terrorist and issued a non-bailable warrant against him and a Red Corner Notice was also issued for his arrest by the Interpol.

Qureshi had sought bail claiming that there was no material against him. His lawyer contended that the prosecution was solely relying on the confession of the co-accused and had failed to produce any other independent evidence against him.

“According to section 15 (1) of the Act, the confessional statement of the accused who is tried separately cannot be adduced as evidence in this trial against the applicant. Thus, there is no material against this applicant to connect him to the 1993 bomb blasts,” the advocate submitted, adding that the accused was not named in the FIR but in the supplementary chargesheet.

The special public prosecutor strongly resisted the bail plea and contended that Qureshi was one of the main conspirators of a ‘well-planned premeditated conspiracy.’ Huge quantities of arms, ammunition and explosives were smuggled into India which then became a part of a carefully planned strategy calculated to terrorize the government, the prosecution added.

The prosecution, while resisting the plea further alleged that the applicant met the prime accused, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and then proceeded to Pakistan, along with other co-accused, for training in handling arms and ammunition, throwing hand grenades and assembling bombs.

“There are several other confessions of co-accused which disclose the applicant’s (Qureshi’s) role. He is aware that if the offence is proved he will be awarded punishment and therefore, there are chances of absconding if released on bail. Even, there is a danger to his life,” the special public prosecutor said.

After hearing arguments from both sides, special judge BD Shelke said that the confessional statements of other accused in the case would be taken as corroborative evidence. “There is sufficient material on record in respect of complicity of this accused in this case. If he is released on bail, on grounds of parity, he will not be readily available before this court for trial against him,” said the judge while rejecting Qureshi’s bail plea.