Mumbai: The special TADA court on Wednesday extended the judicial custody of Ahmed Alam Sheikh alias Ahmed Lambu, one of the key-accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, till July 12. He is considered to be a close aide of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
Lambu, who was declared as an absconder in 1995, had left Mumbai just after the 1993 blasts and had reportedly taken shelter in Dubai.
He was intercepted by the Gujarat ATS on June 1 at Valsad and was handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Mumbai on Sunday. Accordingly, he was produced before a special court designated to hear cases under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and since then his custody is being extended from time-to-time.
According to the CBI, Lambu is one of the prime conspirators, who was privy to the deadly plot, hatched to terrorise Mumbai in order to teach Hindus a lesson. The agency claims Lambu had attended the very first conspiracy meeting in Dubai in the presence of other co-accused like Dawood Ibrahim, Mustafa Dossa and Mohammed Dossa. The central agency has also claimed that Lambu was sent to Pakistan to receive training to execute the plan.
On March 12, 1993, a series of blast rocked the then Bombay, killing 257 people and injuring 713 others. The TADA court has till date pronounced two judgements in the case and have punished more than 100 accused including Yakub Memon, Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, Sanjay Dutt etc. in the case.