Mumbai: Six years after the twin blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar, a special POTA court has declared the three main accused guilty. Among them are Syed and Fehmina Hanif, the first couple in India to be convicted for a terror strike.
The three have also been convicted for planting a bus bomb in Ghatkopar the same year. The strikes killed 54 people and left 260 injured. The court will declare the sentence on August 4.
The court held them guilty of murder and conspiracy for the blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar, and an earlier blast in a bus in Ghatkopar. Syed and Fehmida were charged with planting the bomb in a taxi at the Gateway, and Ashrat Ansari of planting the Zaveri Bazaar bomb.
The group called itself the Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force, and claimed it wanted to avenge the Gujarat riots. But the case unravelled soon after the bombings. The driver in whose taxi the couple planted the Gateway bomb had stepped out just before it exploded and became a key witness in the case.
"The plot was hatched in Dubai with the involvement of the LeT," said Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.
For the victims of the bombings, it has been a long wait for justice.
"Now my daughter's education is incomplete. If her father was alive, she would have studied," said Shanta Dhara, wife of a victim.
The verdict may have taken six years, but it carries the message that the guilty will be punished.