1993 serial blasts case convict Mustafa Dossa dies of cardiac arrest at JJ Hospital

1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Mustafa Dossa on Wednesday passed away after he was admitted to hospital for hypertension and diabetes.

Mumbai: 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict, Mustafa Dossa , died on Wednesday afternoon following a heart attack.

He was admitted at Mumbai's JJ Hospital  early on Wednesday after complaining of chest pain.

Dossa was one of the masterminds of the serial blasts and a close aide of fugitive Dawood Ibrahim.

According to the hospital's dean, T P Lahane, "Dossa was admitted to the jail ward of the hospital at 3 am." He complained of chest pain and had uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes and infection, Lahane said.

Yesterday, the CBI had sought capital punishment for Dossa, arguing that his role in the blasts was "more severe" than that of hanged convict Yakub Memon.

The CBI said Dossa was one of the "brains" behind the conspiracy and that his degree of responsibility towards the commission of the crime was the highest.

The court, in the second leg of the trial in the blasts case, had on June 16 convicted five accused, including Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem, under the charges of murder, conspiracy and sections of now repealed TADA, while the sixth accused Riyaz Siddiqui was convicted only under TADA Act.

As many as 257 people were killed in the co-ordinated blasts that ripped through the city on March 12, 1993.

Twenty four years after multiple blasts ripped through Mumbai killing 257 people and injuring over 700, a special TADA court convicted six accused, including key figures Abu Salem and Mustafa Dossa, while acquitting one.

Those found guilty in what is India's worst-ever terror strike are: Abu Salem who was extradited from Portugal in 2005, Mustafa Dossa, who was deported from the UAE, Mohammed Tahir Merchant alias Tahir Takla, Karimullah Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui and Feroze Abdul Rashid Khan.