TADA court to sentence 1993 convicts on August 22

Mumbai: A special TADA court on Thursday fixed August 22 as the date for pronouncing the quantum of punishment of five convicts, including extradited gangster Abu Salem, in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The court had in June convicted six accused, but one of them, Mustafa Dossa, died after suffering a cardiac arrest.

The judge set the date for pronouncement of quantum of punishment after the prosecution and the defence concluded their arguments and submission on the same. Special judge GA Sanap said that he would fix a date for pronouncement of punishment to the convicts.

The TADA court on June 16 had convicted six persons, Mustafa Dossa, Abu Salem, Karimullah Khan, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, and Tahir Merchant alias Tahir Taklya. Only one accused Abdul Kaiyum was acquitted by the court for want of evidence.

Special public prosecutor Deepak Salvi has sought capital punishment for Karimullah, Firez and Tahir. Prosecution has demanded life sentence for Siddiqui. According to prosecution, Salem too deserves death penalty but due to conditions of extradition treaty he cannot ask for capital punishment for him. Salvi has requested the court to record in judgement that though Salem deserves death penalty but due to section 34 (c) Extradition Act, which says  that if a person has been extradited from a country where provision of capital punishment is not available than the extradited person would not be punished with death, the court cannot hand him over capital punishment.