Nine years after a series of blasts in local trains left 188 people dead and shook up Mumbai, a Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Friday convicted 12 of the 13 accused in the case
Nine years after a series of blasts in local trains left 188 people dead and shook up the city, a Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Friday convicted 12 of the 13 accused in the case.
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188 people had died after seven RDX bombs exploded in the first class coaches of seven local trains on July 11, 2006. File pic
The accused were convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Railways Act of 1989, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act of 1984, Explosives Act of 1884, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, MCOCA and the Explosive Substances Act.
Also Read: 11/7 Mumbai train blasts: 12 accused convicted
Only Abdul Wahid Din Mohammed Shaikh, who was accused of providing his house at Mumbra for harbouring Pakistanis, was acquitted by the court. Arguments on the quantum of the sentence will take place on Monday.
Crestfallen
When the conviction was being announced amid high security, the media was not allowed inside the court and only advocates connected to the case, the 13 accused, and police officials were present. The accused were brought to the court around 11:45 am. The pronouncement of the judgment began at 12:05 pm and ended around 12:30 pm.
Also Read: How the 11/7 Mumbai train blasts rocked the city's lifeline
According to an advocate present inside the court, the accused had been hopeful before the judgment was pronounced and all but one of them looked crestfallen later. None of the 12 convicts, however, broke down. After the judgment was pronounced, the Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare told the court that he will ask for serious punishment for the convicts.
The court then asked the advocates whether they wanted to argue on the quantum of the sentence yesterday itself or on Monday, and most of the defence lawyers said they would prefer the latter. The court then decided that it will begin hearing the arguments on Monday and the convicts were then taken into custody.
Hundreds injured
188 people had died and 829 people were injured after seven RDX bombs had exploded in the first class coaches of seven local trains on July 11, 2006. The blasts occurred in five minutes, beginning 6.23 pm, and the bombs began to go off post-Matunga Road station towards the Virar end.
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Three of the blasts took place between Bandra-Khar Road (over Khar Subway), Mira Road-Bhayander and the Matunga Road-Mahim stations. Three others took place when trains were leaving Mahim, Jogeshwari and Borivli stations.
Another blast rocked a train while it was entering Bandra station. All of the bombs were triggered during peak hours for Mumbai’s suburban network, when most officegoers return home, for maximum damage.
Probe and trial
Initially, the investigation was started by the police from respective jurisdictions, but the cases were then clubbed and handed over to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Between July 20 and October 3, 2006, the ATS of the Maharashtra Police arrested 13 people and claimed to have cracked the case.
The chargesheet in the case was filed on November 30, 2006. The ATS submitted a common chargesheet running into 10,667 pages. The trial started in December 2007 and, in the eight years that followed, the prosecution examined 192 witnesses — including commuters who were on the ill-fated trains and eight IPS officers.
Photos: Tracing the 11/7 Mumbai train blasts convicts' deadly journey
The defence called 51 witnesses and there was one court witness. In its final arguments, the prosecution said that the bombs were kept in pressure cookers even though there was no mention of this in the chargesheet. Intitially, the prosecution in the case had mainly relied on confession statements to prove the involvement of each of the accused.
Later, it was alleged that the confessions were taken forcefully and, hence, would be inadmissible. The trial also saw many hurdles, with a major one being the Supreme Court stay in February 2008, when one of the accused, Kamal Ansari, had said that ‘promoting insurgency’ in the definition of organised crime in MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) was unconstitutional. The petition was dismissed by the Apex Court in 2010 and the stay was lifted.
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