1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Mustafa Dossa dies of cardiac arrest in Mumbai hospital

Mumbai serial blasts case convict Mustafa Dossa due to cardiac arrest on Wednesday at 2.30 pm at JJ Hospital. On Wednesday he had complained of chest pain on after which he was hospitalised.

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

On Tuesday, the CBI had 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 June 16 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accused, including Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem, under the charges of murder, conspiracy and sections of now repealed TADA, while the sixth accused Riyaz Siddiqui was convicted only under TADA Act.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 co-ordinated blasts that ripped through the city on March 12, 1993. The court had acquitted another accused Abdul Quayyumof all charges. The trial of the seven accused Abu Salem, MustafaDossa, 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.