India court upholds death penalties for three in 2003 Mumbai bombings

Feb 10, 2012, 14:09 GMT

New Delhi - An Indian court on Friday upheld the death penalties for three people convicted for the Mumbai twin bombings in 2003 that killed 52.

Judges AM Khanvilkar and PD Kode of the Bombay High Court upheld the verdict by a court that also found the three guilty of another bomb blast in a bus in central Mumbai on July 28, 2003, which claimed two lives, the IANS news agency reported.

In August 2009, a court in Mumbai had sentenced Ashrat Ansari, Hanif Anees and his wife Fehmida Sayed to death, after finding them guilty of planting powerful bombs in two taxis that exploded at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar on August 25, 2003, killing 52 people.

The prosecution said the three were operatives of the Pakistan-based Islamist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, which had planned and carried out the bombings. At least 103 witnesses were examined during the trial.

The blasts were said to be in retaliation for riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, when more than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed.

The LeT is also blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 10 gunmen killed 166 people across the city. The lone surviving gunman, a Pakistani national, is currently on trial.