Body of Mumbai serial blasts mastermind Mustafa Dossa buried

Dossa, 60, who was lodged in the Arthur Road jail, yesterday died at Mumbai's J J Hospital where he was admitted after complaining of chest pain.     

The body was handed over to Dossa's family at around 10.30 pm yesterday after post-mortem, police said.

The family members then took the body to his residence at Agripada in Central Mumbai.     

At around 1.30 am today, Dossa's family members and relatives buried the body near the graves of his parents at Bada Kabarastan in Marines Lines area of south Mumbai, the police said.     

Heavy security arrangements were made for the funeral procession, they said.     

During the hearing of arguments before a special TADA court on the quantum of sentence, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Tuesday 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.     

According to the prosecution, Dossa had smuggled firearms, ammunition, detonators, hand grenades and highly explosive substances like RDX into India for the coordinated blasts.     

The blasts rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993, claiming 257 lives and injuring over 700 people.     

According to the CBI, Dossa was one of the "brains" behind the conspiracy and his degree of responsibility towards the commission of the crime was the highest.     

The special TADA court here 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accused, including Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem, under the charges of murder, conspiracy and sections of now repealed TADA, while the sixth accused Riyaz Siddiqui was convicted only under the TADA Act.