Mumbai, June 16 (Agencies): A special court here convicted six persons in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, including mastermind Mustafa Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem, 24 years after the attacks left 257 people dead.

The court handling cases under the TADA or Terrorist & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act let off Abdul Quayyum for want of evidence against him. This was the second leg of the trial.

All the seven accused were facing multiple charges, including criminal conspiracy, waging war against the Government of India and murder.

The serial blasts – a dozen within two hours at key locations in the country’s commercial capital on March 12– had left 257 dead and 713 seriously injured.

The prosecution said a crime syndicate under Dawood Ibrahim had hatched the plot to “avenge” the destruction of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

In the first leg of the trial, which ended in 2007, the TADA court had convicted 100 accused and acquitted 23.

The trial of 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 when the main trial was ending.

Besides accused Riyaz Siddiqui, all the other five convicts were pronounced guilty by Special Judge G.A. Sanap for criminal conspiracy, murder, and offences under TADA, the Explosives Act, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and Destruction of Public Property Act.

Siddiqui was convicted only under TADA for helping Abu Salem and others in transportation of arms.

The court, however, absolved all the seven accused in the case from the charge of waging war against the nation.

Dossa allegedly masterminded the landing of explosives in India and sent some youth to Pakistan to acquire arms training to execute the blasts.

Salem was found guilty of transporting weapons from Gujarat to Mumbai ahead of the blasts. He had also handed over some weapons to actor Sanjay Dutt.

In 2013, the court had dropped certain charges against Salem that would have worked against India’s bid to extradite him from Portugal, where Salem had fled.

The arguments for sentencing are likely to begin on Monday.

Though the hearing in the case began in 2007, it was delayed as three petitions were pending with the Supreme Court, one each filed by Dossa and Salem, and another by CBI.

The trial resumed in 2012 and concluded this March. 

(This report was updated at 3.15pm.)