The fate of two notorious criminals - Abu Salem and Mustafa Dossa - would be decided on Friday when a special anti-terrorism court delivers its verdict in the 12 March 1993 serial blasts case.
On 12 March 1993, a dozen bombs went off at several locations in the city, killing 257 people, and injuring 713, while destroying property worth Rs. 27 crores.
A total of seven persons including Salem and Dossa, both then part of the gang of Karachi-based don Dawood Ibrahim.
Besides Salem and Dossa, others who stand before Additional Sessions Judge GA Sanap, who presides over a special court set up under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), are Mohammed Tahir Merchant alias Tahir Merchant alias Tahir Taklya, Abdul Qayyum, Karimullah Khan, and Riyaz Siddiqui.
The trial of these seven suspects was separated from the main trial as these seven persons were arrested at a later stage when the first trial was coming to an end.
Salem was one of the key persons of Dawood, however, fell out with him and Chhota Shakeel, after the murder of Gulshan Kumar. This is one of the reasons why Salem and Dossa had several fights inside the jail. As far as the role of Dossa is concerned, he had attended the conspiracy meetings, help some of the accused go to Pakistan for training and arrange for landing of RDX and AK-47 rifles along the Raigad coast.
Salem too was part of the core team of Dawood and it was he who had supplied the Kalashnikov rifle to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. He was part of the group that visited Dutt's Bandra bungalow and delivered the weapons.
Salem was arrested in Portugal in 2002 and was extradited to India 11 November 2005 along with his companion and actress Monica Bedi. He is standing trial in a total of nine cases in India. In 2015, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a TADA court for the murder of builder Pradeep Jain. Dossa was deported from the United Arab Emirates and face the grave charge of landing of arms and ammunition.
