MUMBAI, Feb 13: India’s most-wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, blamed for a series of blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people in 1993, is prepared to stand trial, an aide to the fugitive was quoted as saying on Monday.

A man claiming to be the legal consultant for Dawood — widely known as the head of Mumbai’s notorious D-company gang — announced he was ready to stand trial in London, but did not rule out a return to India.

Meraj Siddiqui claimed the charges against Dawood were ‘fabricated’ and ‘baseless’ and said he would not get a fair trial in India.

“We are ready for a fair trial in London since all the charges against him are fabricated,” the Times of India quoted Siddiqui, said to be speaking by telephone from London, as saying.

The demand for a trial in Britain appeared to be based on a successful battle against extradition in London of a former suspect in the 1997 killing of a Bollywood producer, said Mumbai criminal attorney Majeed Memon.

A Dawood gang member was jailed for life for the killing.

But Memon immediately ruled out the possibility of a trial in Britain for the man branded a global terrorist by the United States.

“Unless you have a substantive reason to demonstrate that you should not get a fair trial, you cannot ask for a judge outside,” he said.

Dawood, the son of a policeman, stands accused of masterminding the 1993 bombings in India’s financial capital, which left more than 1,000 people injured.

The attacks were believed to be in retaliation for nationwide communal riots that erupted after Hindu fanatics in 1992 desecrated a 16th-century mosque.

Officials say Dawood ran a vast network of protection rackets and ordered ransom killings in Mumbai. The US authorities have accused him of involvement in large-scale drug shipments into the United States and western Europe.—AFP