Sanjay Dutt appears before terror court

Mumbai: Film star Sanjay Dutt, charged with possessing an AK-56 rifle in the 1993 bomb blast case and destroying it with the help of friends, yesterday appeared before an anti-terror court here.

Sanjay and 25 other accused were summoned to the special court of judge P.D. Kode to enter attendance. The court had set the accused free on bail.

The court has not said when it would give the verdict on the alleged complicity of Sanjay and a group of his friends who allegedly helped him destroy the weapon.

Meanwhile, the court, set up under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act pronounced a man and his two sons guilty for helping the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts mastermind and absconding prime accused Tiger Memon in carrying out the terror attack. The court held Issaq Hajwani and his two sons Sikander and Shahnawaz guilty under various sections of the TADA Act for conspiracy as well as storage and transportation of arms and explosives that were smuggled in from Pakistan by Tiger Memon.

Kode said that the three were also found guilty of having undergone arms training

"They are convicted under Section 3(3) of the TADA Act for aiding and abetting terrorist acts," the judge said. "Issaq and his sons were found guilty of possessing 13 hand grenades, which Issaq had disposed off at sea near Gandhawadi village in Raigad district, near where the explosives smuggled in from Pakistan by Tiger Memon had landed," the judge said.