'93 Mumbai blasts: 68 convicts seek retrial

The plea submitted in the TADA court says the convicts had been forced to join in the conspiracy behind the blasts.

Sixty-eight people convicted for the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai on Tuesday submitted an application in the special TADA court to seek a retrial.

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A total of 100 accused were convicted in the trial, a majority of them under the provisions of the stringent Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

Tuesday's application filed by Zakir Hussain and others, said that they should have been tried under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act, but not TADA.

Hence they were demanding a retrial, the application said. The court will consider the application on March 12.

Earlier, 69 convicts had filed an application seeking their discharge from the TADA charges.

Last week some 50 of the convicts sought to file a plea that they be discharged of TADA or "sent to gas chambers and eliminated the way Hitler killed Jews". The court, however, did not take this petition on record.

The latest application states that the convicts were forced to join in the conspiracy behind the blasts, and that they did not have full knowledge of its sweep. It also states that they could not afford eminent lawyers to defend them.