2002-03 Mumbai multiple blasts: SC dismisses convict's plea

The Supreme Court today dismissed the plea of a man seeking to set off the remainder of his 10-year jail term in the case of multiple blasts in Mumbai between December 2002 and March 2003 in which 13 people were killed.
Saquib Abdul Hamid Nachan was awarded 10-year jail term in the case lodged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) by a special court in Mumbai.
Before being convicted, he had spent over seven years in jail during the adjudication of the case.
Twelve people were killed in the Mulund train blast on March 13, 2003. Prior to that, on December 6, 2002, several persons were injured in a blast at a McDonalds outlet at the Mumbai Central station, while one person was killed in a blast at a market in Vile Parle (East) on January 27, 2003.

A special POTA court in Mumbai had convicted 10 persons, including Nachan, in connection with the case. Three convicts were awarded life term by the court.
After being released on bail in the POTA case in March 2011, Nachan was re-arrested on August 4, 2012 in connection with a separate case lodged under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

In October last year, he was also released on bail in the MCOCA case, in which the trial is still pending.
On April 6 last year, Nachan was convicted by a special court in the POTA case and subsequently awarded the decade long jail term.

He had approached the Bombay High Court claiming that the trial in the POTA case was going on when he was an undertrial prisoner in the MCOCA case.
He had said that the period of detention undergone by him in the MCOCA case should be set off against the jail term given to him in the POTA case.
The high court had dismissed his plea saying the period undergone by him in MCOCA case cannot be set off against the sentence imposed in the POTA case.
Nachan had thereafter moved the apex court challenging the May 5 verdict of the high court.

His plea came up for hearing today before a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar which dismissed his appeal.