16 June,2017 06:05 PM IST | Mumbai | Sailee Dhayalkar
24 years later, six of the accused, including Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, convicted for their roles in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. But victims wait for Dawood and Tiger Memon to hang
Dawood Ibrahim: Absconding
Their day of reckoning finally arrived. Twenty-four years after they orchestrated the first large-scale coordinated attacks in the world and changed the fabric of Mumbai forever, six of the seven accused in the 1993 blasts were convicted today. One was acquitted.
The seven -- Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan alias Hamza Abdul Rashid Khan, Taher Mohd Merchant alias Taher Taklya, Riyaz Ahmed Siddiqui, Abdul Kayuum Karim Shaikh, and Karimulla Osan Khan alias Karimulla Hussain Habib Shaikh -- were the second set of accused in the blasts case. Abdul Shaikh was acquitted.
Tiger Memon: Absconding
Their trial was held separately as they were arrested towards the end of the first trial that ended in 2007. They were charged under relevant sections of the stringent TADA Act read with sections of the IPC, the Arms Act, the Explosives Act, the Explosives Substance Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
A series of 12 well-planned bomb blasts ripped through iconic, commercial and crowded spots across the city on March 12, 1993, between 1.29 pm and 3.40 pm -- a day often dubbed Black Friday. The dastardly attacks left 257 people dead and 713 seriously injured, and destroyed property worth R27 crore. In the first leg of the trial that concluded in 2007, the court convicted 100 accused and acquitted 23.
Charge: Transported arms from Gujarat to Mumbai
In 2013, the Supreme Court pronounced judgment on an appeal filed by all accused -- wherein key conspirator Yakub Memon's death sentence was confirmed and that of the others (all bomb planters) commuted to life imprisonment.
Actor Sanjay Dutt and many others surrendered before the court in May 2013, after the apex court upheld their conviction. Yakub Memon was executed on July 30, 2015, after several pleas for clemency were rejected. Dutt, who was acquitted of terror charges but sentenced for six years for possession of arms. He served his sentence and was released in February 2016.
Charge: Planning and executing attacks, supplying arms
