Five Policemen Found Guilty Of Helping Terrorist Bombers

Extracted from The Times, UK, September 26, 2006
By Jenny Percival

Five policemen were today found guilty of helping the bombers who were responsible for India's worst terrorist attack.

Inspector Vijay Patil and Constables Ashok Muneshwar, Pandarinath Mahadik, Ramesh Mali and Srikrishna Pashilkar face life imprisonment for aiding and abetting those who actually committed the 1993 Mumbai bombings, and allowing them to smuggle and transport arms and ammunition into the country.

Today's convictions bring to 18 the number of people found guilty after the 11-year trial for their roles in the March 12, 1993, bombings, which killed 257 people.

Judge Pramod Kode acquitted three other police constables accused in the case. The men were given the benefit of doubt since Judge Kode said they could not be satisfactorily identified.
More than 100 people, most of them Muslims, are awaiting the judge’s verdict.

The bombing trial began in June 1995, included 686 witnesses, and ended in January 2003. The delay in the verdicts was blamed largely on procedural matters.

The bombings ripped through the country’s financial heart, and targeted some of the city’s key centers - the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India offices, a state transport office, three hotels, a gas station and a cinema.

The bombs, containing powerful explosives packed into cars, scooters, under a manhole cover and in a hotel room, were detonated over two hours in the afternoon.

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is India’s commercial and entertainment capital.

The blasts were in revenge for the demolition of a 16th century mosque in northern India by Hindu nationalists. The mosque’s demolition sparked religious riots in many parts of the country, leaving more than 800 people dead, most of them Muslims.