MUMBAI, July 27: An anti-terror court in India on Friday sentenced to death one of the main conspirators behind serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993 that killed 257 people, prosecutors said.Yaqub Memon, the brother of the alleged main plotter and fugitive Tiger Memon, faces the gallows for his role in the devastating “Black Friday” attacks which also injured more than 800 people.

His brothers Essa and Yusuf and sister-in-law Rubina were each sentenced to life in prison.

The attacks were believed to have been staged by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for deadly Hindu-Muslim clashes a few months earlier.

“The court gave (the) death sentence to Yaqub for distributing funds and assisting acts of terror,” chief prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.

“This is the message to main conspirator Tiger Memon that terrorist acts will always get what they deserve.” Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim, the alleged masterminds of the blasts, have been on the run since 1993. Indian investigators say they were helped by Pakistan's intelligence service, a charge denied by Islamabad.

The prosecutor said Yaqub, an accountant by profession, is also facing new charges of contempt of court after he insulted the judge, Pramod Kode, by saying: “Lord, forgive this man for he knows not what he does.” Sister-in-law Rubina is the first woman to be sentenced to life in the case.

“She allowed her car to be used to carry explosives,” the prosecutor said.

So far, 96 of the 100 people convicted in the case have been sentenced, with 12 receiving the death penalty and 20 getting life sentences in jail.

They can appeal their punishments and India's Supreme Court stipulates that the death penalty be used only in the “rarest of rare cases.” Death sentences are regularly delayed indefinitely or commuted by the president.

The most high-profile figure caught up in the case, Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, appeared in court on Friday, but his sentencing is likely on next Tuesday.

Dutt, who is on bail, was found guilty of possessing weapons last year but was cleared of the more serious charge of conspiracy in connection with the attacks. The hugely popular Dutt faces up to five years in prison.

Illegal bookies have taken an estimated Rs1.1 billion ($27 million) in bets on what Dutt's sentence will be, the Times of India reported.

The newspaper quoted a source as saying that most were gambling on the probability his plea for probation will be rejected, and that he will receive at least three years in jail.

“For every rupee, a bettor stands to make Rs1.4,” the source told the newspaper. Most of the bets have come from in and around his hometown Mumbai.—AFP