1993 Mumbai blasts case: Abu Salem gets life, Tahir Merchant and Firoz Khan to hang till death
- A special TADA court has sentenced Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan to life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case
- Tahir Merchant and Firoz Khan, two of the five convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, were sentenced to death
- Another convict, Riyaz Siddiqui, was sentenced to 10 years in jail
FollowA special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court has sentenced Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan to life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case on Thursday, September 7.
Tahir Merchant and Firoz Khan, two of the five convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, were sentenced to death.
Another convict, Riyaz Siddiqui, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
In 2015, Yakub Memon was hanged in connection with the same case.
Abu Salem has also been fined Rs 2 lakh. CBI’s Special Counsel DN Salvi said that gangster Abu Salem has been given life imprisonment on two counts of conspiracy. However, government of India has the power to commute his sentence to 25 years.
On March 12, 1993, a series of 13 blasts in Mumbai killed 257 and left over 713 injured.
The targeted locations included the Air India Building, Bombay Stock Exchange, Zaveri Bazar, then existing five star hotels, Hotel Sea Rock and Hotel Juhu Centaur, and others leading to damage to public and private properties worth Rs 27 crore.
In the first part of the trial that ended in 2007, the anti-terrorism court had convicted 100 people, out of which 23 were eventually acquitted.
This was the second part of the trial involved seven accused by TADA court.
On 16 June, the court found six persons guilty in the case, including deported don Abu Salem, who was extradited from Portugal in 2005, Mustafa Dossa, who died in JJ Hospital on 28 June, Tahir Merchant, Karimullah Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, and Firoz Khan.
Another prime accused, Abdul Qayyum, has been acquitted of all the major charges.
Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, while addressing the media after the sentencing, said that Tahir Merchant, who was handed death penalty, “ensured Indian youths were given arms and ammunition training in Pakistan and safely sent back to Mumbai”.
The CBI had requested the death penalty for Karimullah Khan but he was given life imprisonment instead.
