1993 Mumbai serial blasts case convict Mustafa Dossa who was admitted to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai after he complained of chest pain, passed away on Wednesday due to cardiac arrest.
"Mustafa Dossa died due to cardiac arrest on Wednesday at 2.30 pm," Hospital dean TP Lahane was quoted as saying by a news agency.
Early in the morning, Dossa (lodged in Arthur Road jail) was admitted to JJ Hospital after he complained of chest pain and hypertension.
Dossa also informed the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court about his heart condition and said he wanted to undergo a bypass surgery.
The development comes a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought capital punishment for all convicts, including Dossa, arguing that their role in the blasts was parallel to that of hanged convict Yakub Memon.
The CBI said Dossa was one of the “brains” behind the conspiracy and that his degree of responsibility towards the commission of the crime was the highest.
The court, in the second leg of the trial in the blasts case, 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accused, including Dossa and extradited gangster Abu Salem, under the charges of murder, conspiracy and sections of now repealed TADA, while the sixth accused Riyaz Siddiqui was convicted only under TADA Act.
As many as 257 people were killed in the co-ordinated blasts that ripped through the city on March 12, 1993.
(With inputs from agencies)