Mumbai: A special bench of the Bombay High Court commenced hearing in the State government’s death confirmation petition and appeals by convicts in the 7/11 serial trains blasts case of 2006.
The HC, has constituted a special bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak to hear the appeals which have been pending since the special MCOCA court awarded death sentences to five persons in 2015.
On July 11, 2006, RDX blasts at seven locations on the suburban rail network of Mumbai in a span of 11 minutes had claimed 189 lives and injured 800.
Considering that the convicts are lodged at various prisons in the state, the HC has asked them to be produced through video conference facility. The bench will hear the matter on a daily basis in the first session.
On Monday, special public prosecutor Raja Thakare gave the details of the case to the bench. He pointed out that in the span of a few minutes the blasts took place, limbs and body parts were scattered all over the place at the sites of blasts. The blasts were of such intensity that the sides of the trains blew up and passengers in trains passing by were also injured. Two of these blasts took place on platforms and out of fear, people jumped off the platforms and lost their lives.
Initially, seven different FIRs were registered at local police stations, however, considering the gravity of the offence, the case was transferred to the State Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) in the same month itself.
Thirteen accused were arrested and 15 people were shown as wanted, some of whom were allegedly in Pakistan. One of the accused died while planting the bomb in the train and the other was shot dead in an encounter. The ATS, invoked the MCOCA and UAPA,and the chargesheet was filed in November 2006.
There were 192 prosecution witnesses and 51 defence witnesses and two court witnesses. Since, it was not possible to get all injured witnesses to court, the prosecution submitted 252 affidavits of the injured witnesses.
Advocate Payoshi Roy, appearing for the convicts, submitted that these persons were kept in police custody for over 50-60 days by taking their remands in different cases. Roy submitted that this was a case where innocent were framed and alleged there was gross miscarriage of justice and fabrication of evidence.
In September 2015, the special MCOCA court had awarded death sentences to five convicts and life imprisonment to seven others. Four of the accused who were awarded death sentences are Mohammad Faisal Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan, Asif Khan, all of them bomb planters.
The fifth accused sentenced to death, Kamal Ahamed Ansari, the alleged bomb planter, died due to Covid-19 in Nagpur prison in 2022. Hence, the case against him is abated.
The other seven – Tanvir Ahmed Ansari, Mohammad Majid Shafi, Shaikh Alam Shaikh, Mohd Sajid Ansari, Muzzammil Shaikh, Soheil Mehmood Shaikh and Zamir Ahmad Shaikh – have also approached the HC, challenging their life imprisonment.
