Mumbai, July 26 - Six years after the twin blasts at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar, which left 53 people dead, a Mumbai Special Court is expected to deliver its judgement on the 'rarest of rare' case here Monday.
A terror module of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit was involved in planting the powerful bombs in two cabs and triggering them by timers on Aug 25, 2003.
It is the most awaited judgement in a terrorist case after the Special TADA Court completed the March 2, 1993, serial blasts trial in 2007 which led to the conviction of 100 people, including Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, now a Samajwadi Party leader.
The terror attacks were carried out to 'avenge' the deaths of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots that broke out in the wake of the Godhra train burning of Feb 27 that year.
After painstaking investigations, the Mumbai Police nabbed the prime accused - Mohammed Hanif Sayed (35 then), his wife Fahimida (30 then), Ashrat Shafique Ansari (26 then), Zahid Yusuf Patni, Rizwan Laddoowala and A. Shaikh Batterywala.
One accused and the blasts mastermind - identified only as Nazir, was subsequently shot dead in a police encounter in Matunga suburb in September 2003, said advocate for the accused S. Kunjuraman.
A total of four cases was filed against all the accused in the case in which a total of 101 witnesses were examined in the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) Special Court, according to Kunjuraman.
They are: the twin blasts at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar which killed 53 and injured over 100; and a blast outside Ghatkopar railway station July 28, 2003, which left two dead and 31 injured.
The fourth case pertains to planting a bomb in a public BEST bus Dec 2, 2003, at the Special Electronics Export Promotion Zone (SEEPZ), a major commercial hub in Andheri east, which failed to explode.
'If found guilty by the Special POTA Judge M.