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1993 Mumbai serial blasts verdict: Abu Salem, five other accused convicted; Abdul Qayyum acquitted
YB WEB DESK. Dated: 6/16/2017 5:46:16 PM
A Special Terrorism And Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court on Friday convicted six of the seven accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case which had killed 257 and injured 713. The accused convicted are Mustafa Dossa, Abu Salem, Feroz Abdul Rashid Khan, Taher Merchant, Riyaz Siddique and Karimullah Khan. Abdul Qayyum Shaikh was acquitted.
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The seven men form the second set of accused arrested in the case from 2003 to 2010. The trial involving the first set of 123 accused had begun in 1995 and concluded in 2002 with the judgment pronounced in 2006. Their appeals before the Supreme Court were decided in 2013 where the apex court confirmed the death penalty granted to Yakub Memon, while commuting the capital punishment of 10 others and confirming the conviction of actor Sanjay Dutt. Memon was hanged in Nagpur central prison in 2015. Since the current seven accused were arrested at the fag end of the earlier trial, the court ordered for their trials to be separated. Also Read: 1993 Mumbai serial blasts verdict timeline: Here’s what all has happened in the case
According to the CBI, after the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, communal violence broke out in different parts of the country, including Mumbai. The accused, most of whom were members of active organised crime syndicates, planned to take revenge of the demolition and the subsequent riots. Under the leadership of absconding accused Dawood Ibrahim and Ibrahim Mushtaq Abdul Razak Memon (Tiger Memon), who continue to remain absconding along with 31 others, entered a criminal conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in India. The CBI claims that the objective of the conspiracy was to ‘strike terror in the people’ and to ‘adversely affect the harmony’ of different sections of Indian society.
The first conspiracy meeting was held at the residence of absconding accused Mohammed Dossa in Dubai during the riots in Mumbai in December 1992. At the meeting, it was decided that they should send arms in retaliation of the riots.