It is believed that the accused had looted the bank and later transferred part of the funds for hijacking the plane. The two terrorists, who were sentenced last year to life imprisonment by a special anti-hijacking court in Patiala for their role in the hijacking, were recently brought in the city regarding the dacoity case trail.

The trio was booked under sections 390 (robbery), 391 (dacoity), 120 (b) (conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, sections of the Arms Act and Explosives Substances Act by Additional Sessions Judge V P Patkar. He posted the matter for recording of evidence on February 25.

All the accused pleaded not guilty for the charges before the court.

Latif and Bhopalman were produced in the court under heavy security from the Arthur Road jail. Two police inspectors and around 10 heavily-armed constables escorted them. Since they are important accused and have a threat to their life, utmost care is taken regarding their safety while transportation to court from jail, a police officer said. 

According to the prosecution, on October 6, 1999, the three accused, who were armed with weapons including an Ak-56, had stolen a Maruti van. They, along with three other accused (Pakistani nationals Mohammed Asif alias ‘Babloo’ and Mohammed Rafiq Haji, both already convicted, and Ayesha Khan, a wanted accused) had broken into the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank at Borivali just a week before the hijack to bankroll the entire operation. Initially the police were not able to nab the accused, but on December 30, 1999, they were arrested from Jogeshwari, and booked for dacoity.

The accused had stolen over Rs 7 lakh from the bank but the police could recover only Rs 1.72 lakh from them. The rest of the money is said to have been transferred to the hijackers in Pakistan through hawala transactions. However, the Mumbai Police don’t have concrete evidence linking the same against the accused.