Mumbai train blasts on 7 July 2006 ranks among one of the worst terror attacks in the history of the country’s financial capital. In what is nothing but a travesty of justice, the Bombay (Mumbai) High Court (HC) acquitted all 12 convicts, including five who were on death row. This attack was the deadliest attack in Mumbai after the 1993 serial bomb blasts.

Mumbai train bombings accused acquitted

The Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 men previously convicted in connection with the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, which killed 189 people and injured over 800. Among the acquitted were five men who had been sentenced to death. The acquittal comes nearly 20 years after a series of coordinated blasts rocked Mumbai’s suburban railway network.

A special bench comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak delivered the verdict, citing ‘serious flaws’ in the prosecution’s case. The court found that key witnesses were unreliable, identification procedures were questionable, and several confessions had been extracted under duress.

“The defence rightly raised serious concerns regarding the test identification parade. Many witnesses remained silent for years—some for more than four—and then suddenly claimed to identify the accused. This is highly unusual,” the bench observed.

The court also noted significant procedural lapses. Several witnesses were not even examined during the trial. Furthermore, the prosecution could not prove the chain of custody for crucial evidence like RDX and other explosives, casting doubt on its integrity by the time it reached the Forensic Science Laboratory.

Highlighting what it called a “non-application of mind,” the High Court concluded that the prosecution had “completely failed” to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. “It is difficult to hold that the prosecution’s charges can be sustained,” the bench stated.

With this ruling, the HC overturned the 2015 judgment of the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court, which had sentenced five of the accused to death and the remaining seven to life imprisonment.

11 July train bomb blasts

More than 180 people were killed and around 800 injured through a series of seven bomb blasts in the first-class compartments of the Western line of the suburban (local) train which is known as the backbone of the city’s transport network in Mumbai, within 11 minutes from 6:24 PM to 6:35 PM.  The sufferers were mostly executives, businessmen, government employees, private employees, and college students. The mixture of RDX and Ammonium Nitrate bombs was set off in pressure cookers installed on the trains by the terrorists. 

The attack was carried out by the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with the ground support of the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). LeT is a front organization of Pakistan’s notorious spy agency ISI. A total of 12 persons were convicted under Maharashtra Control of Organized Control Act (MCOCA) and other laws. Faisal Sheikh, Asif Khan, Kamal Ansari, Ehtesham Siddiqui, and Naveed Khan who planted bombs in the trains were sentenced to death on 30 September 2015.

The other 7 terrorists who were involved in this deadly blast were Mohammed Sajid Ansari, Mohammed Ali, Dr. Tanveer Ansari, Majid Shafi, Muzzammil Shaikh, Sohail Shaikh, and Zamir Shaikh. The terrorists entered Bharat from the Nepal and Bangladesh borders.

Justice denied once again!

The prosecution will probably appeal the judgment but this raises the larger question of justice. The victims and their families are already traumatized by the inordinate delay. But the judiciary is hardly bothered about their trauma. We can hardly forget the fact that we have a section of the judiciary that believes that ‘every sinner has a future.’ While cases for common public drags for decades, judiciary opens its doors at midnight for terrorists. In the meanwhile, the struggles and never-ending wait for justice of the 2006 Mumbai train blast victims continues.