Mumbai, September 12 :

A special court found four members of the same family guilty today in the first verdicts in the case of India’s deadliest terror attack, the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people.

Three other members of the Memon family were acquitted.

A total of 123 men and women were accused of involvement in the bombings. The judge has said the verdicts would be handed out in groups, taking up to two months.

The first to receive their verdicts were seven members of the Memon family.

One of the main accused, Ibrahim Memon, better known as “Tiger Memon,” has reportedly fled to Pakistan, though officials there deny that. His father, also accused, died during the trial. Three of his brothers — Yaqoub, Essa and Yusuf — were found guilty of all charges, including conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and waging a war against the country. They could face the death penalty.

Rubeena Memon, wife of one of the brothers, was found guilty of abetting the acts. Tiger Memon’s mother, Hanissa, another brother, Suliman, and Yaqoub’s wife, Rahin, were acquitted — though Judge Pramod Kode said they were not entirely innocent.

“I have concluded that I will give them the benefit of the doubt. It is not a clean acquittal but it is short of being guilty,” he said.

Sentencing for the four Memons was expected tomorrow. After the verdicts were read, Yaqoub Memon attacked the judge in a fiery outburst laced with expletives.