The special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (TADA) court pronounced the punishment of five convicts, including extradited gangster Abu Salem, in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Abu Salim is sentenced to life imprisonment.
Abu Salem is guilty of procuring and supplying the arms and ammunition including AK-47 assault rifles, bullets and hand grenades, from Gujarat to Mumbai in early 1993.
In 2013, the Special Court had dropped certain charges against him after a Central Bureau of Investigation plea that those were contrary to the extradition treaty between India and Portugal. Also, under the extradition treaty with Portugal, death penalty cannot be awarded to Salem.
The accused are individually or jointly held guilty of the major charges, comprising conspiracy hatched in 15 meetings in different places including Dubai, creating terror, supplying arms and ammunition, killing, damage to public and private properties, in the blasts carried out at 13 prime locations.
On the afternoon of March 12, 1993, Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, was rocked by a series of 13 blasts in quick succession at various locations in the city and suburbs, creating the worst unprecedented mayhem in the country and killing 257 people.
The prime targets included the Air India Building, Bombay Stock Exchange, Zaveri Bazar, then existing five star hotels, Hotel SeaRock and Hotel Juhu Centaur, and others leading to damage to public and private properties worth Rs 27 crore.
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