Abu Salem convicted under charge of criminal conspiracy

A special TADA court on Friday convicted 1993 Mumbai serial blasts accused Abu Salem under the charge of criminal conspiracy.

Co-accused Firoz Khan, Mustafa Dossa, Abdul Rashid Khan, Tahir Merchant and Karimullah Shaikh were also convicted. Abdul Qayyum Ansari has been acquitted.

The trial involved seven accused, including gangster Abu Salem. The attack left 257 people dead, 713 seriously injured and destroyed property worth ₹27 crore.

In the trial’s first leg that concluded in 2007, the TADA court convicted 100 accused and acquitted 23. The trial of Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Karimullah Khan, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, Tahir Merchant and Abdul Quayyum was separated from the first leg as they were arrested at the time of its conclusion.

In September 2006, 20 of them were awarded life sentence and 12 got death. In 2013, 10 of the 12 awaiting capital punishment had their sentence commuted to life imprisonment.