1993 Mumbai blasts death-row convict Tahir Merchant dead

Merchant, who was lodged in the Yerawada Central Jail here, suffered a heart attack in the prison around 3 a.m. and was rushed to the Sassoon Hospital.

M. Tahir Merchant, alias Tahir Takla, one of the convicts in the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts who was sentenced to death, died of a heart attack here on Wednesday, a police officer said.

Merchant, who was lodged in the Yerawada Central Jail here, suffered a heart attack in the prison around 3 a.m. and was rushed to the Sassoon Hospital.

However, he failed to respond to the treatment and breathed his last around 3.45 a.m., said Additional DGP (Prisons) B.K. Upadhyay.

On September 7, 2017, he was awarded death penalty for conspiring, facilitating and knowingly commissioning acts of terror leading to the March 1993 serial bomb explosions which rocked Mumbai.