Mumbai, June 2: Jaywant Keshav Gurav was a customs officer before he was arrested in the sensational 1993 bomb blast case nine years ago. Today, seven years after the ongoing trial began, he sells vegetables to earn a livelihood.

Like Gurav, nearly 100 other accused have also struggled hard to earn a living after securing bail.

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Gurav sells vegetables outside his home in suburban Dombivali because getting a job has been difficult for him ever since he was arrested. He is accused of allowing smuggled arms to pass through Raigad district for use in the blasts.

Colleagues of Gurav facing the 1993 bomb blast trial are S N Thapa, former additional collector of customs, R K Singh, assistant collector of customs, S S Talewedekar and Mohammed Sultan Ahmed, customs superintendents. Except Thapa, all of them are unemployed. With the bomb blast case, a stigma was attached to their career resulting in great hardship and struggle for survival, say defence lawyers Subhash Kanse and Farhana Shah.

Customs department suspended its staff involved in the bomb blast case. However, they got subsistence allowance for three years from 1993 to 1996. Later, a presidential ordinance stopped such allowance and they were dismissed from service.

The accused challenged government action against them by moving the central administrative tribunal, which rejected their petitions. Later, Mumbai High Court rejected their appeals. The accused, have now moved the Supreme Court.

Most of the 123 accused spent long time behind the bars since 1993. Nearly 100 have secured bail but majority of them are unemployed.
Bureau Report