Hundreds of people were arrested and detained in India. In 2006, 100 of 129 accused were convicted by Justice
P. D. Kode of the
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA)
special court. Many of those convicted have eluded custody, including the mastermind of the attacks,
Tiger Memon. On 12 September 2006, the special TADA court convicted four members of the Memon family They faced jail terms from five years to
life imprisonment, that would be determined based on the severity of their crime. Except for Tiger and Yakub, the entire family returned to India and was promptly arrested by the
Central Bureau of Investigation in 1994. Yakub was later taken into custody and was undergoing treatment for depression. The Memon family was tried in court and found guilty of conspiracy. The defence lawyers asked for leniency in the sentencing and caused delays in the process. Asghar Yusuf Mukadam and Shahnawaz Qureshi, who were found guilty of involvement in the bombings pleaded for leniency, claiming that they were not terrorists and were emotionally driven to participate in the act. Mukadam claimed that the main conspirators took advantage of his "frame of mind" after the
demolition of Babri Masjid and the subsequent riots, alleging police partiality during the riots. "
Vested interests" instigated him to act as he did. Qureshi was trained in Pakistan to handle arms and ammunition. He and Muquddam parked the explosive-filled vehicle at
Plaza cinema which resulted in 10 deaths and 37 injuries. Qureshi reached Pakistan via
Dubai, where he claims he was taken "under the pretext of providing ... an alternative job". He claimed his house was set on fire during the riots. Some of the conspirators who managed to flee India after the bombings were arrested and extradited to India. These conspirators were declared absconders during the trial.
Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Firoz Khan, Taher Merchant, Riyaz Siddiqui, Karimullah Khan, and Abdul Kayoum amongst others were arrested and the trial continued against these absconders in a special TADA court in Mumbai.
Ujjwal Nikam who was earlier the
Special Prosecutor in these cases was replaced by
Deepak Salvi to continue with the trial in the light of the subsequent developments.
Memons •
Yakub Memon was held in prison beginning in 1994. He was convicted of
conspiracy: arranging and financing training and purchasing vehicles used for the bombings. He was sentenced to death in July 2007 and was executed by hanging on 30 July 2015 at 6:35 a.m. IST at Nagpur Jail. •
Isa and
Yusuf Memon, brothers of Yakub, were both charged with using their residence to host conspiracy meetings and store arms and explosives. Yusuf also provided his van to plant bombs. Isa was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2006. Yusuf, a chronic schizophrenia patient, was also sentenced to life imprisonment. As of 2015, both were in
Harsul Central Jail in
Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Yusuf died of a heart attack on 26 June 2020. •
Rubina Memon, sister-in-law of Yakub and wife of Suleman. Her
Maruti car was the first piece of evidence in the trial. She was convicted of allowing the use of her vehicle to deliver explosives and received a life sentence. • Yakub's brother
Suleman, his wife
Raheen, and his mother
Hanifa were acquitted by a judge.
Bomb planters The prosecution had sought the death sentence for all of the following except Imtiaz Ghavate. As he is
HIV positive, the prosecution sought a lesser sentence for him. •
Shoaib Ghansar, Asghar Mukadam's cousin, was convicted of putting an
RDX explosive in a scooter and planting it in
Zaveri Bazaar where the explosion killed 17 and injured 57. He was sentenced to death on 19 July 2007. •
Asghar Mukadam and
Shahnawaz Qureshi planted an RDX-laden van in
Plaza Cinema that killed 10 and injured 37 others. Mukadam loaded RDX in vehicles and disbursed money to conspirators while Qureshi undertook arms training and loaded contraband. Both were sentenced to death on 19 July 2007. •
Parvez Shaikh was found guilty of parking a bomb in Katha Bazaar that killed 4, and planting a bomb in Hotel Sea Rock that destroyed 9 crores ( 90 million) of property. He was sentenced to death on 18 July 2007. •
Mushtaq Tarani participated in a meeting at
hotel Taj Mahal and did a reconnaissance of the bombing sites. He planted a bomb at Hotel Juhu Centaur injuring 3 and causing loss of property worth 2.10 crore ( 21 million) and planted an unexploded scooter at Sheikh Memen Street in Zaveri Bazaar. He was sentenced to death on 18 July 2007. In March 2013, most of these death sentences awarded by the
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court were commuted to life in prison until death by the
Supreme Court of India. Only the death sentence of Yakub Memon was upheld.
Landing agents •
Dawood Phanse,
Dawood Takla (Dawood Baldie), was found guilty of conspiracy, organising the landing of arms, ammunition and the nearly of RDX at Shekhadi in
Raigad district on 3 and 7 February 1993 and attending a conspiracy meeting in Dubai with Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon. Due to his old age, he was given two life sentences (to be served concurrently) and fined 2 lakhs ( 200,000).
Others involved •
Bashir Khairulla was convicted for his participation in arms, ammunition and explosives training, conspirators' meetings, and filling of RDX in the vehicles. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 July 2007. •
Zakir Hussain was convicted for participating in the arms, ammunition and weapon training, conspirators' meetings and filling of RDX. He was sentenced to death on 24 July 2007. •
Abdul Akhtar Khan was convicted for taking arms, ammunition and explosives training in Pakistan. He was sentenced to death on 24 July 2007. In the 10,000-page judgement, TADA Court Judge P. D. Kode reasoned that even without evidence against Thapa, he received a life sentence because he was the senior-most customs officer and thus must be aware of the conspiracy. Thapa proclaimed his innocence and was confident that the greater conspiracy of his wrongful arrest, trial and conviction would be unveiled in the Supreme Court which, in 1994, granted him bail on lack of evidence. Thapa died due to
lung cancer on 11 April 2008. His family expressed hopes that the Supreme Court would hear their plea for the truth. •
R. K. Singh, a former assistant commissioner of customs, was convicted for facilitating the RDX landing in Shekhadi after accepting a bribe of more than 7.8 lakh ( 780,000). He was sentenced to 9 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of 3,00,000. •
Mohammed Sultan Sayyed, a former customs superintendent, was convicted for facilitating the RDX landing in Shekhadi after accepting a bribe of more than 7.8 lakh. He was sentenced to 7 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of 1,00,000. was convicted for allowing passage of RDX from Raigad to Mumbai and sentenced to 8 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of 2,00,000. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and 1 lakh ( 100,000) fine on 22 May 2007.
Other co-conspirators •
Yusuf Nulwalla was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment with an additional two years for destroying the evidence and a fine of 25,000. •
Kersi Adejania was sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of 25,000. •
Ibrahim Musa Chauhan, alias Baba Chauhan, was convicted for supplying AK-56 rifles, magazines, ammunition, and hand grenades to Sanjay Dutt and Salim Kurla as instructed by Anis Ibrahim. He was also convicted for unlawful possession of one AK-56 rifle, 635 rounds of ammunition, 10 magazines, and 25 hand grenades ==Popular culture==