‘93 blasts case judgment on September 7

The Special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court on Tuesday said that it would be pronouncing its final verdict against extradited gangster Abu Salem and four other convicts in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts on September 7.

The special judge GA Sanap had in June convicted Salem, Mustafa Dosa, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Tahir Merchant, Riyaz Siddiqui and Karimullah Khan. The special judge had also discharged Abdul Qayyum, the alleged close aide of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, as the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient material against him. The judge had also discharged all of these convicts from the stringent charge of ‘waging war against the nation.’

So far, the special court has heard the arguments of the lawyers representing all the convicts along with the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI’s) special prosecutor Deepak Salvi.

During the course of arguments on quantum of punishment, Salvi had vehemently sought the gallows for three convicts — Firoz Khan, Tahir Merchant and Karimullah Khan. The CBI had sought maximum punishment for Salem, who is having the Portugal treaty in his favour, which restrains courts from granting more than 25-years punishment to him.

On the other hand, noted advocate Sudeep Pasbola had argued for some of the convicts, and had sought minimum punishment for them. Meanwhile, the case against Dossa now stands abated as the prime accused and brother of absconding accused Mohammed Dossa, died pending the hearing of sentencing.

Merchant and Karimullah, for being "main conspirators" in the Mumbai blasts of '93, Salvi stressed on how Merchant worked with Tiger Memon.