Sentence for five 1993 serial blast case convicts to be announced today

A SPECIAL court will on Thursday pronounce its sentence against the five men convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The court designated under the now-repealed Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act had convicted the men on June 16 for the blasts, which had killed 257 and injured 713 people. The convicts include Feroz Abdul Rashid Khan, Taher Merchant, Karimullah Khan, Abu Salem and Riyaz Siddiqui. Mustafa Dossa, who was also convicted, passed away on June 28 when the arguments on sentencing were going on. The case against him has been closed.

The TADA court had convicted all except Siddiqui under charges including murder, criminal conspiracy and other sections under the Indian Penal Code, TADA Act, Explosive Substances Act, Explosives Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. Siddiqui was convicted under Section 3 (3) of the TADA Act. The Central Bureau of Investigation has sought the death penalty for Feroz, Merchant and Karimullah.

It sought life imprisonment for Salem and Siddiqui. Special CBI counsel Deepak Salvi said that though “nothing short of death penalty” would fit the crime committed by Salem, it said that the agency was bound by the Extradition Act.

Salem was extradited from Portugal in 2005 and under the solemn sovereign assurance given to Portugal, death penalty cannot be awarded to him.
The CBI had claimed that the role of Dossa was “more severe” than Yakub Memon, who was hanged in July 2015 in the same case. The CBI had also claimed that Dossa, Merchant and Feroz, were “main conspirators”.