A known convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Tahir Merchant, who was one of the accused responsible for the death of almost 257 people, died on Wednesday after suffering from severe chest pains.
Tahir Takla, popularly known as Tahir Merchant who was convicted of building an alliance with Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim for the 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blasts, breathed his last in Sassoon Hospital where he was admitted after complaining about severe chest pains. Additional Director General (Prisons) Bhushankumar Upadhyay confirmed that Merchant died in the early hours of Wednesday.
Merchant was extradited to India from Abu Dhabi and was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2010. He had been serving his jail term in Yerwada central prison in Pune.
A Yerwada prison official said, “He complained of chest pain around 3 am and was taken to the Sassoon general hospital. he was declared dead at 3.45 am. The death is suspected to be due to a heart attack. A post-mortem and inquiry by police will be conducted to ascertain the cause of death, as the procedure is, for any death in custody or prison.”
In 2007, a special anti-terror court had convicted 100 accused, including actor Sanjay Dutt, in connection with the blasts. In September last year, a special court awarded death sentence to Tahir Merchant and Firoz Khan, while awarding life imprisonment to prime accused Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
According to the jail officials, his family has already been informed about his demise.
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