Mumbai serial blasts convict Mustafa Dossa dies in JJ Hospital's jail ward

Mustafa Dossa

New Delhi: Mumbai serial blasts case convict Mustafa Dossa who admitted to the JJ Hospital  after he complained of chest pain passed away Wednesday afternoon. He died of cardiac arrest.  "Dossa was admitted to the jail ward of the hospital at 3 am," 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. Yesterday, 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.  he 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accused, including Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem, under the charges of murder, conspiracy and sections of now repealed TADA, while the sixth accused Riyaz Siddiqui was convicted only under TADA Act.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 Quayyum of all charges. The trial of the seven accused 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 at the time of conclusion of the main trial.