All 12 men convicted in 2006 Mumbai train blasts acquitted
What's the story
The Bombay High Court has acquitted all 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blast case. The decision overturns a special court's earlier verdict, which had sentenced five of the accused to death and awarded life sentences to seven others. The case pertains to the serial bomb attacks that happened on July 11, 2006, when seven bombs exploded in suburban trains on Mumbai's Western Railway line, killing 189 people and wounding 824.
Verdict details
'Prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case'
At the hearing, the special bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said that "the prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case beyond reasonable doubts." The court found most of the prosecution witnesses unreliable, stating there was no reason for taxi drivers or passengers to remember the accused after nearly 100 days. The bench also dismissed the discovery of evidence such as bombs, firearms, and maps as immaterial because the prosecution failed to identify the type of bomb used.
Defense arguments
Defense lawyers argued prosecution's case was flawed
Senior advocates S Muralidhar, Yug Mohit Chaudhry, Nitya Ramakrishnan, and S Nagamuthu represented the accused. They argued that the prosecution's case was flawed and the trial court erred in convicting their clients. "And then after years, the accused are acquitted, and then no one gets closure. We have a history of failures in probes in terror cases. But it is not too late now. The court can set it right," senior counsel Muralidhar had submitted.
Confession controversy
Accused had spent many years in jail without substantial evidence
The defendants' lawyers also argued that the "extra-judicial confessional statements" obtained by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad through "torture" were inadmissible under law. They contended that their clients were falsely implicated and had spent many years in jail without substantial evidence. One accused, Kamal Ansari, died due to COVID-19 in Nagpur prison in 2021. However, special public prosecutor Raja Thakare defended the death sentences, arguing that this case fell under the "rarest of rare" category.
Case
Case has been pending since 2015
The state moved the high court to confirm the death sentence, while the convicts also filed appeals challenging their verdicts and sentences. The case has been pending at the high court since 2015. In 2022, the state warned the court that hearings would take at least five to six months due to the abundance of material. Following repeated pleas for early disposal, a special bench was established in July 2024 to hear the case on a daily basis.