Twenty-four years after a series of bomb blasts ripped through Mumbai, killing 257 people and leaving 713 injured, a special court Thursday Sep 07,2017 handed the death penalty to two of the accused and life imprisonment to two more, including extradited gangster Abu Salem.
Of the 6 convicted by the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court on June 16, Taher Merchant and Feroz Abdul Rashid Khan were sentenced to death; Salem and Karimullah Khan were handed concurrent life sentences on two separate counts each; and, Riyaz Siddiqui got 10 years’ imprisonment. Mustafa Dossa died less than a fortnight after the conviction four months ago.
Siddiqui, who has already spent over 12 years in prison, will continue to remain in jail as he was convicted last week in the murder of Mumbai builder Pradeep Jain. Siddiqui faces a minimum of life imprisonment in the case. The TADA court had let off a seventh accused, Abdul Quayyum, for want of evidence. This was the second leg of the trial.
The CBI had sought death sentences for Feroz, Merchant and Karimullah while seeking life for Salem and Siddiqui.
All the 7 accused were facing multiple charges, which included criminal conspiracy, waging war against the state and murder. The accused said they will be filing appeals against the order before the Supreme Court.
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