Mumbai: Gangster Abu Salem has been sentenced to life in jail in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case and two other convicts, Tahir Merchant and Feroz Khan, have been sentenced to death, reports NDTV.

Another convict, Karimullah Khan, has also been sentenced to a life term. Abu Salem was extradited from Portugal 12 years ago and then tried for the blast in which 257 people were killed and over 700 seriously injured.

A special court has also slapped a fine of Rs. 2,00,000 on Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan; they have been held guilty of murder, supplying arms and other serious offences.

The Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI had asked for life imprisonment for Abu Salem, who was convicted under the stringent Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act or TADA.

Abu Salem was extradited from Portugal in 2005 and cannot be sentenced to death because of a guarantee to the Portuguese.

Another convict, Mustafa Dossa was extradited from the UAE. He died in June of a heart attack.
A number of other accused in the case, including India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, remain on the run.

This was the second part of the trial in the serial blasts case involving seven accused by a TADA court in Mumbai. In the first part that ended in 2007, the anti-terrorism court convicted 100 people, of which 23 were later acquitted.

Yakub Memon was hanged in 2015 after a historic middle-of-the-night hearing in which the Supreme Court dismissed his final appeal.

A series of 13 blasts in quick succession ripped through various locations of India’s financial capital on March 12, 1993. The targets included the Air India Building, the Bombay Stock Exchange, Zaveri Bazar, hotels SeaRock and Hotel Juhu Centaur. Property worth Rs. 27 crore was damaged. 

Abu Salem, accused of transporting weapons from Gujarat to Mumbai, was arrested in Portugal in 2002. He was also responsible for giving weapons to actor Sanjay Dutt, who was accused in the case for the illegal possession of an AK-56 rifle, 250 bullets and some hand grenades at his residence on January 16, 1993. 

The court recorded the statements of around 800 witnesses. Three including Abu Salem had confessed to their crime during investigations carried out by the CBI over the years.