Key witness in 93 blasts identifies Abu Salem in TADA court

Mumbai, Aug 27 (UNI) A key witness in the 1993 blast case today deposed before the designated TADA court and identified extradited gangster Abu Salem as the accused, who had stored arms and ammunition in his godown in Gujarat prior to the blasts.

Deposing before TADA Judge U D Mulla, prosecution witness number seven, who was brought from Gujarat, in his examination by Chief Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam, said he owned a godown at Sansoor village of Gujarat and in the second week of January 1993, Salem along with his associate came to his house and requested him to keep some goods in his godown.

He said he came to know that the goods were weapons later, following which he told them to take back the same upon which they threatened him with dire consequences.

The witness, who is at present lodged in a Gujarat jail in another case, further said due to fear he did not inform the same to police.

In the cross examination by defence advocate H H Ponda, he said it is true that he had stored the arms in his godown, but it was not done voluntarily and was done due to the threat by Salem.

Later on behalf of Salem and Dubai deported blasts accused Mustafa Dossa alias Mustafa Majnu, an application under Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was moved before the court, seeking permission to treat the witness as an accused as he had stored the arms and therefore was equally responsible for the crime as were the other accused.

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