Abu Salem, along with Mustafa Dossa, Firoz Khan, Tahir Merchant, Karimullah Shaikh, Riyaz Siddique, were held guilty by a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case.
Abu Salem Abdul Qayoom Ansari: Guilty He was extradited from Portugal and arrested on November 11, 2005.
However, all accused were acquitted on the charge of waging war against the nation. The main trial in the case by the TADA court had led to the conviction of 100 accused out of a total of 123 in 2006, while 23 people were acquitted. They were later separated from the main case as they were arrested at the time of conclusion of the main trial.
The court is going to hear arguments on quantum of sentence from the next week.
Atleast 257 were killed and another 713 were injured when 12 multiple blasts rocked the city of Mumbai on March 12th 1993.
Friday's verdict brings and end to the long-running trial, which centered on the role played by Abu Salem - who authorities accused of being a gangster - in supplying weapons to the attackers.
While speaking about Mustafa Dossa, the court held that after the demolition of Babri Masjid, a "conspiracy meeting" was planned and was attended by him, the accused in custody and those absconding in his Dubai house.
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Queen Elizabeth, 91, and her grandson Prince William also visited residents and emergency workers on Friday. She said earlier that the national mood is somber but that Britain is resolute in the face of adversity.
Salem's advocate had then contended that according to the sovereign assurance given by the Centre, Salem could not have been convicted under the charge of section 120 (B) (conspiracy) and cannot be given imprisonment for more than 25 years.
While Dossa was convicted on charges of conspiracy and murder under various sections of the IPC besides offences under the TADA Act, the Arms Act and the Explosives Act, Salem was found guilty of transporting weapons from Gujarat to Mumbai ahead of the blasts. The reason being an extradition treaty between India and Portugal.
For perpetrating their heinous acts, the conspirators acquired and smuggled deadly arms and ammunition, detonators, hand grenades and almost three tonnes of the deadly RDX (Research & Development Explosive - OR Cyclotrimethylene Trinitramine), which was used for the first time after World War II on such a scale.
Accused Riyaz Siddique also convicted under TADA and other charges, but court believed prosecution failed to prove conspiracy charges against Riyaz. He recruited and sent one co-accused to Pakistan for training; participated in the arms drop at Dighi Jetty and Shekhadi with Tiger Memon and the others.
Sanjay Dutt was earlier sentenced to a five-year jail term in the same case for possession of arms used in the blasts and was granted an early release for good conduct.
Yakub was executed on July 30, 2015, after several of his clemency pleas were rejected, including a post-midnight hearing by the Supreme Court on the day he was hanged.
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