A special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity court in Mumbai on Wednesday sentenced Abu Salem to life in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. Karimullah Khan, another convict in the case, also got life imprisonment. Salem was fined Rs 2 lakh, as well, according to The Times of India.
Tahir Merchant and Firoz Khan have been sentenced to death, and Riyaz Siddiqui has to serve 10 years in prison. Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the convicts will get set off for the time they served in prison already.
Salem was arrested in Portugal in 2002, extradited to India in 2005 and then tried. “We had to give an assurance to Portugal that he will not be given the death sentence,” OP Chatwal, who led the eight-member team that brought Salem back to India, said. “Without this assurance, he could not have been extradited.”
But Salem may also not need to spend more than 25 years in prison. “While bringing him from Portugal, the government of India has given an undertaking that he will not undergo a sentence of more than 25 years,” said Deepak Salvi, public prosecutor.
On June 16, the court had found the accused and Mustafa Dossa guilty for the blasts, in which more than 250 people were killed. Abdul Qayoom was acquitted in the case. Dossa, who had been held responsible for acquiring weapons used in the attacks from Pakistan, had died on June 28.
Yakub Memon, one of the convicts, was hanged in July 2015. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was also convicted for his involvement and served jail term first during the trial and then from 2013 to 2016.
Besides the blasts case, Salem is also accused of murder and extortion in several other matters. He has already been sentenced to life in connection with the murder of a Mumbai builder in 1995 and is currently lodged in Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai.
The Mumbai serial blasts
On March 12, 1993, at least 257 people were killed and over 700 injured in 12 powerful blasts across Mumbai. Orchestrated by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, the blasts were an act of revenge against the communal riots that swept through Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993 after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. At least 900 people were killed in the riots and more than 2,000 were injured – the majority of them Muslims.
Immediately after the explosions, the state government had set up a special court under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act to hold trials in the case. So far, the Tada court has convicted 106 people for their involvement in carrying out the blasts.
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