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More than 24 years after 12 blasts rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993 claiming 257 lives, a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court in Mumbai awarded death sentence to two persons and life imprisonment to two others, including Abu Salem, in the second phase of the trial in the case.
Following is the chronology of events in the case in which the main trial ended in 2007.
The trial of seven accused in the case was separated, out of which six were held guilty on June 16.
March 12, 1993: 12 explosions rock Mumbai resulting in 257 fatalities and injuries to 713 others.
April 19: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt (accused number 117) arrested.
November 4: Over 10,000 page-long primary charge-sheet filed against 189 accused, including Dutt.
November 19: Case handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
April 10, 1995: 26 accused discharged by TADA court. Charges framed against the remaining accused. Supreme Court discharges two more accused -- travel agent Abu Asim Azmi (Samajwadi Party leader) and Amjed Meher Baux.
April 19: First leg of trial commences.
September 18, 2002: Abu Salem detained in Lisbon, Portugal.
March 20, 2003: Accused Mustafa Dossa arrested by CBI at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi on his arrival from Dubai.
September 2003: Main trial ends. TADA court in Mumbai reserves judgement.
January 9, 2004: Charges framed against Dossa.
November 11, 2005: Salem extradited to India.
December 9: Charges framed against Salem.
June 13, 2006: Abu Salem’s trial separated.
September 12: TADA court judge P D Kode starts delivering the judgment, pronounces four members of the Memon family guilty, and acquits three. Later, 12 convicts were awarded death penalty while 20 were given life sentence. Other convicts were handed over different sentences.
February 2007: Main trial concludes. Second leg involving seven accused begins.
March 16, 2013: Sanjay Dutt surrenders before court after the Supreme Court upholds conviction.
March 21: Supreme Court upholds death sentence of convict Yakub Memon, brother of Tiger Memon, and commutes death sentence of 10 convicts to life term. Life imprisonment of 16 out of 18 convicts also upheld.
August 13: TADA court drops certain charges against Salem which violated the extradition treaty with Portugal.
July 30, 2015: Key conspirator and lone death row convict in the case, Yakub Memon hanged.
December 7: Final arguments of the second phase of the trial start.
June 8, 2016: Court rejects plea of accused Firoz Abdul Rashid in which he said he wants to become an approver.
March 2017: Trial concludes.
June 16: TADA court judge G A Sanap convicts six accused, including Dossa and Salem, and acquits one.
June 28: Dossa dies of cardiac arrest in Mumbai hospital.
September 7: Court awards death sentence to Tahir Merchant and Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, life imprisonment to Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan and 10 years imprisonment to Riyaz Siddiqui.
IMAGE: Special public prosecutor Deepak Salvi talking to media after a Mumbai court on Thursday awarded death sentence to Tahir Merchant and Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan and life imprisonment to extradited gangster Abu Salem in the 1993 serial blasts case. Photograph: Santosh Hirlekar/PTI Photo