Date set for Mumbai bomb verdicts

The 1993 blasts in Mumbai killed 257 people

A judge in Mumbai (Bombay) says he will deliver the verdict on those accused of carrying out the biggest terror attack in Indian history next month.

Judge PD Kode, who is due to begin reading the judgement, has fixed 12 September as the date of the verdict.

It had been widely expected that the verdict would be delivered on Thursday.

A total of 123 defendants are accused of involvement in a series of bombings in India's financial capital in 1993, killing 257 people and wounding 713.

The judgement will bring to an end one of the world's longest running trials.

Despite the large number of people on trial, the police admit that some of the main suspects, including gangster Dawood Ibrahim, are still at large.

Bollywood star, Sanjay Dutt, is among the accused.

There have been few trials to match it in legal history.

It has taken more than a decade, with evidence from more than 600 witnesses.

1993 MUMBAI BLASTS 12 blasts 257 dead 713 injured 123 arrested and tried 686 witnesses testify 35,000 pages of evidence submitted 13 years to reach verdict

Key figures in the Mumbai criminal underworld are believed to have planned the attacks.

Their motive is said to have been to avenge the deaths of Muslims killed in religious rioting in the city during the preceding months.

Lawyers have criticised the length of the trial.

The case has taken so long that 12 of the accused have died, and others have been imprisoned for so much longer than their likely sentence that a guilty verdict may still result in them walking free.