1993 Mumbai blasts case: TADA court rejects accused plea to turn approver

Mumbai: The special TADA court on Wednesday rejected the application of an accused in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case to turn an approver. "Your application is rejected," Special Judge GA Sanap told accused Firoz Khan. The court also rejected his oral request to keep him in Arthur Road jail here till Ramzan Eid.

Earlier, Khan had applied to the court seeking to become an approver and get pardon in the case, following which he was transferred to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai. The prosecution said that it had enough evidence against all the accused and did not want any approver.

Meanwhile, the Arthur Road Central Prison authorities on Thursday moved the special TADA court seeking transfer of Mustafa Dosa, another accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, to Thane jail. The court today directed the Prison authorities to keep Dosa in the high security 'Anda cell'. According to sources, the jail officials in the application said that Dosa was forming his own gang inside the jail.

They also said that over 60 percent of the inmates are Muslims and Dosa has supremacy over them. Prison officials further said that on May 30 there was a fight in the jail between two groups and they suspect Dosa's role in it.

In the application, sources said, the officials said that the jail is overcrowded and is having inmates of over three times its capacity. They also said that even Dosa could also be attacked in the jail. Seven accused -- extradited gangsters Abu Salem, Mustafa

Dosa, Karimullah Khan, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, Tahir Merchant and Abdul Quayyum -- are facing trial in the case in which the court had earlier convicted 100 men, including Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. The trial of these seven men was separated as they were arrested later.

As many as 257 people were killed in thirteen powerful blasts that rocked the mega-polis on March 12, 1993.