Asghar Yusuf Muquddam and Shahnawaz Qureshi, both found guilty by the TADA court for their roles in 1993 serial blasts in the city, on Tuesday pleaded for leniency in sentence, saying they were not terrorists and were emotionally driven into the conspiracy.
Mukadam, who was found guilty on Monday, of parking a Maruti van laden with explosives at Plaza Theatre on the fateful day said that main conspirator took advantage of his "frame of mind" after the Babri Masjid demolition and subsequent communal riots. "Police were partial (during the riots) and politicians too did not pay any heed... I could not understand what to do and was forced to take revenge (for the riots) due to this," Asghar said.
According to him, some "vested interests" took advantage of his emotions and he pleaded that he did not have any criminal record prior to the blasts.
Qureshi, who was found guilty of taking arms and ammunition training in Pakistan, apart from parking bomb-laden van at Plaza alongwith Asghar, said, "My house was set ablaze during the riots and I was misled and taken to Dubai under the pretext of providing me with an alternative job."
"From Dubai, I was taken to Pakistan and sent back to India via Dubai," he said adding that one cannot get arms training in mere four to five days - the duration for which he was in Pakistan.
Saying that after Allah he had faith only in the TADA judge, Qureshi added that he was an ordinary boy from a village in Nasik district before being drawn into the conspiracy.