A special court in Gujarat's Jamnagar has sentenced five accused of the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings to seven years in prison. All the accused are residents of Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor.
The convicts include Qadir from the village of Kalhari in Najibabad and Iftikhar from the village of Khaikheri. Both were questioned by various investigative agencies, and in 2017, the Gujarat ATS took them into custody.
The investigation revealed that the explosives were transported from Jamnagar to Mumbai. According to a report by Jagran.com, Qadir was close to Dawood Ibrahim and was in contact with him until just before the explosions.
Qadir Ahmed, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings, was arrested by a joint team of Gujarat Police and the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Najibabad in 2017. A case has been registered against him under the TADA Act in this matter.
Asim Arun, then Inspector General of the Uttar Pradesh ATS, stated that they had arrested Qadir Ahmed, a TADA accused in connection with the 1993 Mumbai bombings. Qadir Ahmed was accused of being involved in transporting weapons and explosives supplied by Tiger Memon in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to Mumbai for the serial bombings.
Qadir was arrested by the Gujarat Police on the basis of a court warrant, but he disappeared after being released on bail. A court warrant had been issued against Qadeer since 1995, following the Mumbai bombings, and he was declared a fugitive. He was arrested in 2017, 21 years after the incident.
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The accused worked as a property dealer in his village. Mohammad Ayyub and Salim Kutta, both residents of Rahukhedi village, were also accused of transporting explosives from Gujarat to Mumbai. Ishtyaq, a resident of Khaikheri village, and his brother Iftkhar were also charged in the case. All five accused were sentenced to seven years in prison.
During interrogation by local police, Qadir stated that he had been in contact with Dawood in Mumbai before the blasts and had even played cricket with him. After the blasts, Dawood disappeared, and Qadir also fled Mumbai.