Death or life sentence for Abu Salem? CBI counsel says not decided yet

Senior CBI counsel Deepak Salvi today commenced his argument in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case and said that they will be asking for maximum punishment that is death. Pointing out at the casualty figures, he added that the court has to look at some glaring facts.

"257 people had died and 713 were critically injured. These two numbers are sufficient to show the brutality that existed at that time and court will have to keep this in mind while giving sentence," Salvi said.

Salvi quoted various Supreme Court judgements and said that crime and punishment are two sides of same coin. He added that the defense would put forth many mitigating circumstances before the court and will plead and cry for lesser sentence but the magnanimity of crime was such that 1500 kilograms of RDX had been brought to Mumbai which could have destroyed the city.

He also quoted various judgements to say that although there are voices raised around the world against capital punishment but many countries including US, Russia and others, which cannot be called uncivilized and immature, have endorsed it for punishing acts of terror. Salvi also read out the Yakub Memon's judgement who was the only convict to be hanged while many others were given life sentence in the 1993 blast judgement.

The arguments in the case by prosecution is likely to go on till the beginning of next week. However, outside the court Salvi added that he had not yet decided if he will be asking for death sentence for extradited underworld gangster Abu Salem.

Saleem had been convicted by the special TADA court last week in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case for not just helping in executing the bombing plan but also for planning the entire conspiracy. Salvi said that his acts were not less than other convicts and it deserved death punishment. "But the fact that an extradition treaty has been signed between Portugal, from where Saleem was arrested and sent to India, and our country where in it is explicitly written that India cannot give death sentence to Saleem, I have not been able to decide if I should ask for death sentence for him or not," said Salvi.

Deepak Salvi is expected to describe the role of each convict and then ask for a corresponding sentence according to that.

Last week special TADA court had convicted six people and acquitted one after it arrived at a conclusion following a five year long trial. Apart from Saleem, Mustafa Dossa, Karimullah, Feroz Khan and Tahir Merchant were convicted by court. Another accused Riyaz Siddiqui was only convicted under TADA and not under other charges so Salvi is not likely to ask for death sentence for him as well.

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