Mumbai: Twenty four years after 13 bomb blasts ripped through Mumbai, claiming 257 lives and injuring over 700, a special Tada — Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act — court on Thursday sentenced convicts Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, 47, and Tahir Merchant, 55, to death.
Extradited gangster Abu Salem, 50, who was among the main conspirators and had delivered three AK-56 rifles, ammunition and around 100 hand grenades to actor Sanjay Dutt (who has already completed his sentence in an earlier phase of the trial after being convicted under the Arms Act), was given life imprisonment. Along with him Karimullah Khan, 55, was also awarded life in prison, while Riaz Siddiqui, 67, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
25 years in prison
Salem’s life sentence could be converted to 25 years in prison if the government commutes it, said Deepak Salvi, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel. Salem was extradited from Portugal in 2005 to stand trial for his role in the 1993 blast case after India gave an undertaking that he would not be given a death sentence.
Tada court judge G A Sanap announced the sentences yesterday after the completion of arguments on the quantum of sentences on August 10.
All the men were convicted earlier for their role in the bomb blasts, while Mustafa Dossa, among the main conspirators, who had made arrangements to bring arms into the country, died of natural causes (cardiac arrest) in June this year while in Arthur Road jail. On June 16 this year, Sanap had convicted the six accused, including Dossa and Salem, and acquitted one man, Abdul Qayoom Karim Shaikh, 64, for lack of evidence.
The men were arrested between 2003 and 2010. The court said the accused had conspired to “take revenge against the government of India and against members of the Hindu community” after the riots that took place in 1992.
Special court
The special court also slapped a fine of Rs200,000 (Dh11,477) on Salem and Karimullah Khan. The three convicts sentenced to life and 10 years will get set-off for the time they have served in jail.
The Special judge also slapped varying amounts of fines on the convicts after finding them guilty on various charges, including murder, hatching a criminal conspiracy to carry out the blasts, waging a war against the nation, supplying arms and ammunition, and other serious offences, Salve told media after the ruling.
They were convicted and sentenced under various laws including Indian Penal Code, Tada, Explosives Act, Explosive Substances Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and others.
The conspirators had acquired and smuggled deadly arms and ammunition, detonators, hand grenades and nearly three tonnes of the deadly RDX (Research & Development Explosive — or Cyclotrimethylene Trinitramine), which was used for the first time after the Second World War on such a scale.
At least 27 others accused in the case, including dreaded mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and Tiger Memon, who masterminded the blasts, continue to elude investigators and are declared absconders.
In the first phase of what is probably the longest terror case trial in India, the then Special Tada Court Judge PD Kode sentenced 12 convicts to death, 20 to life terms, and gave other varying sentences to the remaining.
In March 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Yakub Memon, the brother of absconder Tiger Memon, commuted the capital punishment for 10 others to life sentences, and upheld the life imprisonment of 16 others.
On a quiet afternoon on March 12, 1993, the country’s commercial capital was shattered by 13 blasts at various locations in the city and suburbs, creating unprecedented mayhem in the country. Targets included the Air India Building, Bombay Stock Exchange, Zaveri Bazar, and five-star hotels SeaRock and Juhu Centaur.
