A special TADA court on Thursday sentenced Abu Salem and Karimullah Osan Khan to life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. The duo have also been fined for Rs. two lakh each.
The court awarded death sentence to Taher Mohd. Merchant and Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan. Riyaz Ahmed Siddiqui has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
On March 12, 1993, 12 bombs exploded at several locations in what was then Bombay, killing 257 people and injuring 713 while destroying property worth Rs 27 crore.
Twenty-four years later, the TADA court on June 16, convicted Abu Salem Abdul Qayoom Ansari, Mustafa Ahmed Umar Dossa alias Mustafa Majnu, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Taher Mohd. Merchant alias Taher Taklya, Karimulla Osan Khan alias Karimullah Hussain Habib Shaikh and Riyaz Ahmed Siddiqui under sections of the TADA, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Arms Act and the Explosives Act for perpetrating the blasts. It, however, acquitted Abdul Qayum Karim Shaikh of all charges.
Of the six, Mustafa Dossa who was lodged at the Arthur Road jail died of cardiac arrest on June 28.
The CBI brought Abu Salem and his companion Monica Bedi from Portugal in 2005 after a three-year legal battle after the then NDA government assured Portugal that the two would not get the death penalty, if extradited.
