The special court hearing the 1993 Mumbai blasts case on Friday exempted actor Sanjay Dutt from personal appearance before it till April 2.

On March 12, TADA court judge P D Kode will  hear an intervening application opposing Dutt's plea under Probation of Offenders Act.

Dutt, convicted under Arms Act in the blasts case, has urged the court that he be released under POA, on probation of good conduct.

The court on Friday also recorded statement of Ijaz Pathan, convicted for participating in conspiracy meetings held by prime absconding accused Tiger Memon.

Pathan claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case.

The court has already recorded statements of other 99 convicts, but Pathan's statement could not be recorded as he was in hospital.

He was brought to the court on a wheelchair and his lawyer read out his statement.

Pathan was deported from Dubai in February 2003. Following the serial blasts, he spent some time in Pakistan with Tiger Memon, according to his statement.

His defence is that he was invited to conspiracy meetings on the pretext that they were religious meetings, and refused to go along when the he realised that Memon and Dawood were planning to carry out blasts.

He also said while in Karachi, he was shot at by unidentified men in an attempt to eliminate him and he spent 21 months in a hospital in that city.

He himself wanted to surrender so he approached Indian authorities, following which he was deported, he claimed.

Saying that he was suffering from various ailments and had his wife and two children to support, Pathan asked for a lighter sentence.