Gangster Abu Salem has been sentenced to life in jail by a special court in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Two other convicts Tahir Merchant and Feroz Khan have been sentenced to death and a fourth, Karimullah Khan, has also been sentenced to a life term. Abu Salem was extradited from Portugal and then tried. The blasts had left 257 people dead and 713 seriously injured.
The Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI had asked for life imprisonment for Abu Salem – convicted under stringent sections of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act or TADA.
A number of other accused in the case, including India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, remain on the run.
A series of 13 blasts in quick succession ripped through various locations of India’s financial capital on March 12, 1993 and the suburbs killing 257 people and injuring around 700.
Abu Salem, accused of transporting weapons from Gujarat to Mumbai, was arrested in Portugal in 2002. He was also responsible for giving weapons to actor Sanjay Dutt, who was accused in the case for the illegal possession of an AK-56 rifle, 250 bullets and some hand grenades at his residence on January 16, 1993.
