The Maharashtra Government on Monday granted a month's parole to 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case convict Zaibunissa Kazi.
Seventy-five-year-old Kazi had surrendered before a TADA (Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act) court in Mumbai in May 2013. She was charged under the TADA Act for abetting and aiding terrorism activity.
In March 2013, Press Council of India chairman, Justice Markandey Katju had written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde seeking pardon for Kazi.
Katju had then cited that Kazi was a 75-year-old widow, who was suffering from kidney troubles and that she had already served nine months in prison.
On March 12, 1993, 12 coordinated blasts rocked Mumbai's various parts, killing at least 257 people and injuring more than 700.
In April last year, the Supreme Court has given Kazi a month to surrender before the jail authorities in connection with her role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
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The other convicts who had then got partial relief were Shariff Abdul Gafoor Parker and Issaq Mohd Hajwane.
Earlier, three convicts Altaf Ali Sayeed, Essa Memon and Yusuf Nulwalla were also given four more weeks to surrender.
The apex court had earlier rejected the plea of Zaibunissa and two others, seeking extension of time to surrender. But Zaibunissa counsel filed a review petition after the court granted four-week relief to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt in the similar plea.
Dutt had sought a six-month extension of the April 18 surrender deadline to allow him to complete shooting of seven films worth Rs.278 crore.
The apex court, which had upheld the death sentence of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a key conspirator with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, ordered that Dutt then to return to jail to serve three-and-a-half years sentence for possessing illegal arms.
Dutt was thereafter released twice-once on furlough in October and then in December on parole to attend to family-related matters.
Dutt has to serve a jail term of 42 months as the apex court reduced to five years the six year jail term awarded to him by a designated TADA court in 2007 and he had already spent 18 months behind the bar.
The blasts occurred at 12 places, including Bombay Stock Exchange building, Air-India Building at Nariman Point, at Worli opposite Century Bazaar, Hotels Sea Rock and Juhu Centaur.
Allegedly, the blasts were masterplanned by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and two other terrorists, to avenge Babri Masjid incident of December 6, 1992.
A total of 257 persons were killed and 713 others injured when a series 13 coordinated explosions shattered the metropolis on March 12, 1993.