TNN

Mumbai, Jul 27: Six years after twin blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in south Mumbai killed 52 people and left 184 others injured, a  special Pota court on Monday held all 3 accused guilty.

Quantum of sentence in the case will be declared on August 4.

The court pronounced its judgment against three accused, Haneef Sayyed (46), an auto driver, his wife Fahmeeda (43) and Ashrat Ansari (32). The fourth accused has been made an approver. Fahmeeda is lodged at the Byculla women's prison for the last six years while the two men have been kept at the Arthur Road jail. A total of 103 witnesses have been examined in court.

Fifty-two people were killed and 184 injured in the August 25, 2003, blasts.

This is the biggest judgement in a terror-related case since a Tada court convicted 100 people for the 1993 serial blasts case in 2007.

The crime branch had said the blasts were engineered by members of the "Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force'' to avenge the Gujarat riots. The conspiracy for the blasts was hatched in Dubai, the police claimed.

The accused told the police that they planned the blasts in retaliation against "atrocities on Muslims'' in Gujarat.

The police arrested six persons, including a 16-year-old girl, but a court later acquitted her. Two other accused, Ansari Ladoowala and Hasan Batterywala, were discharged from the case after a Pota review committee gave them a clean chit. The police claimed to have recovered 750 gm of RDX from Batterywala's auto repair shop in Kurla and two detonators from Ladoowala's house in November 2003. The cops also claimed that

Nasir Ahmed, the main conspirator, was killed in an encounter on September 12, 2003, near Matunga.