The Supreme Court  on Friday suspended the death sentence of Mohammed Shoaib Ghansar awarded by the Special Mumbai TADA Court for his involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts.

A bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices R V Raveendran and Markandey Katju stayed Ghansar’s death sentence on his petition challenging the ruling given by the TADA court last year.

The stay has been granted by the court as arguments were pending on the petition filed by the convict.
Ghansar was sentenced to death for parking a scooter filled with RDX opposite the Mumbai stock exchange and triggering a blast that killed 17 people and injured 57 others.

The bench also adjourned the hearing by a week on the bail plea of one of Tiger Memon’s brothers, Yusuf Abdul Razak Memon, sentenced to life in jail . Tiger Memon, one of the key conspirators, is absconding.

Yusuf had sought bail on the grounds that he was suffering from chronic schizophrenia.

On Yusuf’s plea, the bench had, at the last hearing, ordered the Maharashtra government to constitute a medical board to examine whether he was actually suffering from the ailment.

The bench had sought the medical report within a week but it was not given. Accordingly, the bench adjourned the hearing on Yusuf’s bail plea by another week.

The TADA in December last year, had sentenced the accused for his involvement in the March 1993 serial bombings that killed 257 people in India’s financial capital.

On the afternoon of March 12, 1993, a series of 13 explosions ripped through Mumbai, killing 257 people and grievously injuring 713. Property worth crores of rupees was damaged.