Abu Salem, Karimullah Khan sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993 Mumbai blasts case

Asia

A special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (TADA) Court on Thursday sentenced Abu Salem to life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai Blasts case.

Karimullah Khan was also awarded life imprisonment.

The court had convicted six people, including the mastermind of the attack Mustafa Dosa and Abu Salem on June 16 this year.

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.

Ahead of the hearing which will pronounce the quantum of sentence of the accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Advocate Deepak Salvi has indicated that most of the convicts are likely to get death sentences.

Speaking to ANI about the special court hearing tomorrow, he said, “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."

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.

The Mumbai blast of March 12, 1993, resulted in 257 fatalities and over 700 were injured. 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.

Source: newindianexpress