Four guilty of 1993 Mumbai blasts

1993 blasts in pictures Victims' wait for justice

A court in India's western Mumbai (Bombay) city has found four members of a family guilty for their roles in the serial bomb blasts in the city in 1993.

A total of 123 defendants are accused of involvement in the blasts in India's financial capital that killed 257 people and wounded 713.

Judge PD Kode said the other verdicts would be announced in stages because of the large number of accused.

The main accused, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, has not been caught.

Ibrahim is now believed to be living in Pakistan and is accused of being the mastermind of the plot.

Judge Kode said that four members of a family, Yaqub Memon, Yusuf Memon, Isa Memon and Rubina Memon had been found guilty of involvement in the bombings.

All of them have been found guilty of conspiracy and abetting a terrorist act.

They are related to another main accused, Tiger Memon, who has not been caught and is believed to be living outside India.

Correspondents say Tiger Memon owned a restaurant in Mumbai and was allegedly closely associated with Dawood Ibrahim.

The police say he was involved in gold and narcotic smuggling and was one of the masterminds of the 1993 blasts. Some reports suggest that he is running a business outside India.

Legal history

Bollywood star, Sanjay Dutt, is among the accused.

The 1993 blasts in Mumbai killed 257 people

Dutt was arrested 13 years ago on terrorism charges and spent nearly two years in jail before the Supreme Court released him on bail.

The BBC's Zubair Ahmed in Mumbai says that there have been few trials in India to match this one 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 Profile: Fugitive gangster

The bombings are believed to have been carried out by one of the city's notorious underworld crime syndicates, which were then dominated by Muslims.

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

Most of the accused men have been languishing in jail for the last 13 years.

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.