The "Black Friday" attacks, which also injured more than 800 people, were believed to have been staged by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for deadly Hindu-Muslim clashes a few months earlier.

"The court sentenced to death Mohammed Pawle for acts of terror by planting bombs at the landmark Air India building and a petrol pump in central Mumbai," chief prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.

Twenty people died and 84 were injured in the Air India blast.

Pawle, who was ill, lay on one of the court benches as Judge Pramod Kode read out the sentence.

"No other sentence can be given (for these crimes) other than capital punishment," Kode said, according to media reports.

So far, 92 of the 100 people convicted in the case have been sentenced, with 11 receiving death sentences and 17 getting life sentences, Nikam told AFP.

Those sentenced are expected to appeal.