Mumbai serial blasts 'mastermind' Mustafa Dossa is dead

Mustafa Dossa, one of the masterminds of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and a close aide of fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, on Wednesday died of cardiac arrest at a hospital here, a day after the CBI sought capital punishment for the convict.

Dossa, 60, died at Mumbai's J J Hospital where he was admitted in the early hours on Wednesday after complaining of chest pain, a police official said.

During the hearing of arguments before a special TADA court on the quantum of sentence, the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) yesterday argued that the role of Dossa, one of the six convicts in the 1993 serial blasts case, was "more severe" than that of hanged convict Yakub Memon and pleaded for his death sentence.

Dossa had smuggled firearms, ammunition, detonators, hand grenades and highly explosive substances like RDX into India for the coordinated blasts, according to the prosecution, The blasts rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993, claiming 257 lives and injuring over 700 people.

According to the hospital's dean, T P Lahane, "Dossa was admitted to the jail ward of the hospital at 3 am."

He complained of chest pain and had uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes and infection, Lahane said. Dossa died at 2.30 pm due to cardiac arrest, he said.

The special TADA court adjourned till Friday the arguments for deciding the quantum of sentence. The court also allowed an application moved by Dossa's brother Haroon seeking custody of his body to perform his last rites.