A judge has handed out the first death sentences in India's Mumbai bombings trial to three men convicted of planting a series of explosives that killed 257 people in India's deadliest terrorist attack in 1993.

All three had been convicted of planting explosive-laden suitcases and scooters in India's financial capital on March 12, 1993.

Justice Pramod Kode handed the sentences to Parvez Shaikh, Mushtaq Tarani and Abdul Ghani Turk.

More than 100 people were convicted of being involved in the plot, thought to be an act of revenge for the demolition of a 16th century Babri mosque by Hindu terrorist in northern India in 1992.

Lengthy trial

The sentences came on Wednesday as the case nears the end of one of India's longest and most closely watched trials.

Shaikh was convicted of planting a scooter packed with explosives in a crowded Mumbai market and an explosives-filled suitcase in a city hotel.

Tarani placed a bomb inside a suitcase in a city hotel that caused extensive damage and planting a scooter with explosives in a crowded downtown street that did not detonate.

Turk was sentenced to death for packing a jeep with bombs near Mumbai's passport office.

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Mumbai city. (AFP)

Al-Jazeera