Mumbai: Families of the victims of the 2006 serial train blasts here that killed 189 people hailed as a ‘correct punishment’ the death penalty awarded to five of the 12 convicts and life sentence to the remaining, observing that justice has been delayed but not denied. The family members of the 189 people who lost their lives and the 829 injured in seven powerful blasts that ripped local suburban trains between Matunga and Mira Road stations on the western line on July 11, 2006, while welcoming the decision of the special court said the trial should have been expedited. The trial was concluded by a special MCOCA court nine years after the blasts.
Padamchand Gandhi, whose hearing ability has been affected after the blasts damaged both his eardrums, says, “I expected all the accused to get the death sentence. They were responsible for ruining so many lives and killed so many others.” “How is it that the rest have to face only prison time?” the 51-year-old asks. The sentiment is echoed by most of the victims’ family members and themselves. For 49-year Dashrath Patel who was in Mira road when the blasts shook his compartment, life has taken a complete turn.
Talking about the judgement on Wednesday, he says, “All those accused and arrested have been proven guilty. On what basis then does it decide that five should be hanged and the rest get life imprisonment? Everybody was an accomplice and contributed to the blasts. Whether they placed the bombs in the train or helped in the planning – they are all criminals. Then why are the seven (those who have been awarded life imprisonment) being spared?”
Still hesitant of boarding a local train, Patel asks another crucial question, “Are our trains any safe than what they were during the blasts? We now have the Metro Rail with all its modern safety equipments and so many CCTV cameras and security men patrolling the stations; but the local train stations stand in dark contrast to this,” he opines. “So many people enter and exit with bags and we rarely check less than a fifty of them.”
A resident of Dahisar, Ashokbhai Waghela, a chartered accountant, rarely travelled by local train once he started his consultancy firm in Borivali. But on July 11, 2006, he went to meet a client in South Mumbai and fell victim to one of the blasts. His wife Yogita was left to fend for herself and her two school-going children. “The court has given a correct punishment. They (convicts) took so many lives in a matter of a few minutes, but it took nine years to prove them guilty,” she said.
