1993 Mumbai serial blasts case: Sentencing of Abu Salem, four other convicts today

Mumbai: A special TADA court here will on Thursday pronounce its sentence against the five men convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. 

The court had convicted the five 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 Central Bureau of Investigation wants life imprisonment for Abu Salem - convicted under stringent sections of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act or TADA.

Ahead of the sentencing of the accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Advocate Deepak Salvi has indicated that most of the convicts are likely to get death sentences.

"There are seven accused in front of the court right now. Six of them have been convicted. One was convicted for abetment of conspiracy for which the maximum punishment is life sentence. The other six are convicted for the main conspiracy for which their punishment can be death sentence," Salvi was quoted as saying by ANI.

He added that the sentence for Abu Salem can differ as he was extradited from Portugal.

"Portugal doesn't have death sentence. We cannot give him death sentence because of the extradition treaty," he said.

Arguments over the degree of sentences continued after the conviction in June and concluded on August 10.

All the accused were facing multiple charges like criminal conspiracy, waging war against the government and murder of people.

This was the second leg of the trial - in the first leg that concluded in 2007, the TADA court had convicted 100 accused in the case, while 23 people were acquitted.

The attacks were planned by Dawood Ibrahim, India's 'most wanted' fugitive who also has his name prominently figuring on the 'most wanted' lists of the US and the Interpol. (

With ANI inputs