A special Tada court in Mumbai on Friday convicted six persons including mastermind Mustafa Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, 24 years after the attacks left 257 people dead. It, however, let off one accused Abdul Quayyum, for want of evidence against him. This was the second leg of the trial.

All the seven accused were facing multiple charges which included criminal conspiracy, waging war against the Government of India and murder. In the first leg of the trial that concluded in 2007, the Tada court had convicted 100 accused, while 23 people were acquitted.

The present trial of the accused — Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Karimullah Khan, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, Tahir Merchant and Abdul Quayyum — was separated from the main case as they were arrested at the time of conclusion of the main trial. The dastardly attacks had also left 713 seriously injured and destroyed properties worth Rs 27 crore.

Besides accused Riyaz Siddiqui, all the other five convicts were pronounced guilty by special judge G.A. Sanap for criminal conspiracy, murder under various sections of the IPC besides offences under Tada, Explosives Act, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and Destruction of Public Property Act.

Air India building after the dastardly attacks.

Siddiqui was only convicted under Tada for helping Abu Salem and others in transportation of arms. The court, however, absolved all the seven accused from the charge of waging war against the nation. The arguments for sentencing in the case (for six convicts) are likely to commence on Monday.

However, former top cop M.N. Singh feels though the Tada court convicted second set of accused, there would be no “closure” as long as Dawood Ibrahim, the main conspirator, remains at large.

“There is no final closure yet. Full sense of justice is denied to the victims due to government’s inability to bring Dawood and other main conspirators to justice,” said Singh, a former Mumbai police commissioner.

“In my view it’s not justice to the victims who died in blasts, because the main conspirators Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Anees Ibrahim and Mohammad Dossa are still in Pakistan and our government failed to bring them to book,” he said.

“There is absolutely no chance” that Dawood will ever be brought back, and therefore there would be no closure, the retired IPS officer said.

Black Friday
On March 12, 1993 the country’s commercial capital witnessed an unprecedented terrorist attack when a series 12 bomb explosions took place one after another in about a span of two hours.

The blasts took place at Bombay Stock Exchange, Katha Bazaar, Lucky petrol pump near Sena Bhavan, opposite Passport office near Century Bazaar, Fishermen’s colony at Mahim Causeway, at basement of Air India Building, Zaveri Bazaar, Hotel Sea Rock, Plaza Theatre, Centaur Hotel (Juhu), Sahar Airport (Bay no.54) and Centaur Hotel (near airport)