INDIA'S top court has upheld the death penalty for a mastermind of the country's deadliest series of attacks and ruled a Bollywood star who bought weapons from the bombers must return to jail.
Yakub Memon, brother of the alleged main plotter and fugitive Tiger Memon, was the only one of 11 convicts to see his death sentence upheld by the Supreme Court for his role in the 1993 blasts, which killed 257 people in Mumbai.
The judges also handed down a five-year term for the actor, Sanjay Dutt, for possessing illegal weapons bought from gangsters accused of orchestrating the bombings. Dutt has served 18 months but is out on bail.
Announcing the sentences on Thursday, Supreme Court judge P Sathashivam said the Memon brothers and another suspect, Dawood Ibrahim, who is said to be living in Pakistan, "were archers and the rest of the appellants were arrows in their hands".
"They were the architects of the blasts," Sathashivam said.
The remaining convicts who had appealed against the death penalty saw their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
The attacks on March 12, 1993, were believed to have been staged by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence that left more than 1000 dead in the city a few months earlier.
Yakub, an accountant by profession, his brothers Essa and Yusuf and sister-in-law Rubina were all convicted for their involvement in the serial blasts at 13 locations.
The Bombay Stock Exchange, the offices of the national carrier Air India and the luxury Sea Rock hotel were among the targets.
Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim, the other alleged masterminds of the attacks, have been on the run since 1993. Indian investigators say they were helped by Pakistan's intelligence service, a charge denied by Islamabad.
Dutt, who was appealing against an original six-year term, spent 18 months behind bars before being bailed in 2007.
During a police raid, investigators uncovered a pistol and an AK-56 rifle which were part of the consignment of weapons and explosives said to have been brought to India from Pakistan and then used in the attacks.
Dutt, a one-time heavy drug user who has a reputation as one of Bollywood's bad boys, had admitted buying the weapons but insisted they were only meant to protect his family.
The 53-year-old in a statement said he "respected" the court's verdict.
"I have already suffered for 20 years and been in jail for 18 months. If they want me to suffer more I have to be strong," he said.
"I am heartbroken because today, along with me, my three children and my wife and my family will undergo the punishment," he said in the statement.
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