AMN / MUMBAI
Two convicts of the 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blasts Case, Tahir Merchant and Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan have been awarded death sentence while gangster Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan sentenced for life. The fifth convict in the case Riyaz Siddiqi has been jailed for 10 years.
The special court for Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) in Mumbai today pronounced the quantum of sentence against all the five convicts of the Mumbai Bomb Blasts Case. The court had concluded hearing on the punishment to be awarded to the convicts on 10th of last month.
On June 16, 2017 Judge G A Sanap convicted Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Karimullah Khan, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui and Tahir Merchant for their roles in the blasts conspiracy while another accused, Abdul Kayuum, was acquitted. Dossa died of cardiac arrest shortly after being convicted, on June 28.
All the accused were facing multiple charges like criminal conspiracy, waging war against the government and murder of people. This was the second leg of the trial – in the first leg that concluded in 2007, the TADA court had convicted 100 accused in the case, while 23 people were acquitted. The Mumbai blast of March 12, 1993, resulted in 257 fatalities and over 700 were injured.