Mumbai serial blasts convict Mustafa Dossa dead

Mumbai 1993 serial blasts convict Mustafa Dossa died in JJ Hospital on 28 June, hours after he was hospitalised on complaints of chest pain.

"Dossa was admitted to the jail ward of the hospital at 3 am," said hospital dean TP Lahane. Dossa, lodged in Arthur Road jail, complained of chest pain and had uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes and infection, he said.

The CBI, on 27 June, sought capital punishment for Dossa, arguing that his role in the blasts was "more severe" than that of hanged convict Yakub Memon.

The CBI said Dossa was one of the "brains" behind the conspiracy and that his degree of responsibility towards the commission of the crime was the highest.

The court, in the second



leg of the trial in the blasts case, had on 16 June convicted five accused, including Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem, under the charges of murder, conspiracy and sections of now repealed TADA, while the sixth accused Riyaz Siddiqui was convicted only under TADA Act.

As many as 257 people were killed in the coordinated blasts that ripped through the city on 12 March 1993.

The court had acquitted another accused Abdul Quayyum of all charges.

The trial of the seven accused - Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Karimullah Khan, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, Tahir Merchant and Abdul Quayyum - was separated from the main case as they were arrested at the time of conclusion of the main trial.