1993 Mumbai blast ‘mastermind’ Mustafa Dossa dies of cardiac arrest in JJ Hospital
The CBI prosecutor had recently sought death penalty for Dossa (Picture Courtesy: IANS)
Mustafa Dossa, mastermind and one of the convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, died in Mumbai’s JJ Hospital on Wednesday. He had been admitted last night after complaining of chest pain.
“Dossa was admitted to the jail ward of the hospital at 3 am,” JJ Hospital dean TP Lahane told news agency PTI earlier today. Dossa, lodged in Arthur Road Jail, complained of chest pain and had hypertension, diabetes and infection.
Dossa died due to cardiac arrest today at 2.30pm, Lahane said, adding that the real cause of death will be determined only after an autopsy is performed.
He was one of the six men convicted by a special TADA court on June 6 in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
The court, while convicting Dossa, found that prosecution had adequately proved that he had called a meeting in Dubai after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition. The meeting was attended by Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Anees Ibrahim and Ejaz Pathan.
The decision to terrorise and bomb Mumbai, to avenge the demolition, was reportedly taken at the same meeting.
Dossa had arranged for the landing of explosives including RDX in India and sent some youth to Pakistan to acquire arms training to execute the blasts.
He 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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation prosecutor had recently sought the death penalty for Dossa, one of the ‘masterminds’ of the blasts.
Special public prosecutor Deepak Salvi had called Dossa the driving spirit behind the blast, and the true “architect” of the conspiracy.
Apart from Dossa, the court had convicted underworld don Abu Salem and four others in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, in which 257 people were killed.
