Jamnagar TADA court convicts 12 in 1993 arms smuggling case linked to Mumbai serial blasts
While 12 were convicted, the special TADA court acquitted 17 others after a 33-year-long trial in 1993 arms smuggling case linked to Dawood Ibrahim.
The case pertains to a "meticulously planned conspiracy", which the prosecution proved was "hatched at the Dubai residence of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim". File Photo More than three decades after a Pakistan-linked arms landing on Gujarat’s coast helped facilitate the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and other communal discord across the country, a Special TADA court in Jamnagar Monday convicted 12 conspirators, establishing official involvement of Pakistani marine and military officers in the smuggling operation tied to Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon.
The verdict, delivered by Special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Judge RP Mogera, brings partial closure to a case registered in July 1993 that involved a decades-long investigation and trial.
Judge Mogera pronounced the long-awaited verdict in the case registered on July 15, 1993, under multiple sections of the TADA Act, the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, and the Explosives Substances Act.
The court also acquitted 17 others. The detailed order and sentencing of the accused are awaited.
Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon (Ibrahim Abdul Razak), Anees Ibrahim Kaskar, Chota Shakeel, Anwar Samba, whose last known location was Karachi, are among the 15 accused who have been declared proclaimed fugitives by the court under TADA Section 8(3)(A) and are believed to be in Pakistan and the UAE.
‘Aim of spreading communal terror’
The case pertains to a “meticulously planned conspiracy”, which the prosecution proved was “hatched at the Dubai residence of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim” to smuggle a large cache of weapons and explosives, including RDX, into India by sea, with an “aim of spreading communal terror” in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.
Special Public Prosecutor Tushar Gokani said, “The prosecution succeeded in proving all the facts regarding how the conspiracy was hatched at Dawood Ibrahim’s residence in Dubai and how it was executed with the help of Pakistan. During the evidence in the case, it came to light that officers of Pakistan’s Marine Security as well as military officers were also involved in the conspiracy to transport the weapons.”
“The investigation carried out by retired IPS officers P K Jha and Satish Verma, and current CBI Special Director Manoj Shashidhar, brought out chilling facts of the case… All witnesses spoke in one voice to support the prosecution’s case,” Gokani added.
Jha died in 2008.
Mid-sea transfer and landing in Gujarat
According to the prosecution, the conspiracy involved recruiting Harun Adam Sanghar, a resident of Bedi village in Jamnagar and Osman Umar Kareja and Mamad Alimamad alias Madu, who hail from Salaya-Mandvi in Kutch, to smuggle the “consignment” into India by sea. The accused would “serve as the final link in an international supply chain”.
A launch named Sada Al Bahar, owned by accused Mustafa Dossa alias Mustafa Majnu Seth, who died in 2017 in the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai due to a cardiac arrest, was directed to a sea point near Karachi, where it received weapons from a vessel linked to Pakistan’s Marine Security Agency.
In the dead of night sometime in early 1993, Sada Al Bahar sat mid-sea off India’s western coast, waiting as it was loaded with “explosives, black powder RDX, hand grenades, bombs, rifles and approximately 150 deadly weapons”. As per the prosecution, the “orders came by satellite phone, from Dossa, acting for Dawood Ibrahim”.
When the launch neared Karachi, with Osman Umar Kareja serving as the captain, the launch was fitted with modern communication equipment and loaded with arms and explosives by a Pakistani Marine Security Agency boat, the prosecution stated. After 48 hours, two more launches arrived, “Bismillah”, captained by Junus Chikna and “Marwan”, steered by Anwar Samba, both residents of Karachi.
Seth then ordered that half the consignment of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and hand grenades from Sada Al Bahar be transferred to the Bismillah launch, which headed south toward Maharashtra.
Sada Al Bahar proceeded toward the Porbandar–Veraval coastline in Gujarat and, after receiving a signal via wireless set from Mahmad Kasam Lajporiya and Junus alias Loto Rathod, anchored the launch near shore. Accused Mahmad Kaliyo, Junus Loto, Mamumiya Panjumiya, and others arrived by boat and landed the weapons and explosives near the bridge of Gosabarana. The consignment was then transported via truck to Surat, Valsad, Uttar Pradesh, and other locations.
The investigation ran from 1993 to 2018, during which 46 accused were arrested, 11 died during the proceedings, six were discharged on Supreme Court orders, and the final trial ran against 29 accused. Charge sheets were first filed in 1996 against 29 individuals, with supplementary charge sheets filed against additional accused as they were apprehended — including a 2019 charge sheet against seven further individuals, after which the formal trial commenced.
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