MUMBAI : Bombay high court Special bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak to pronounce on Monday the verdict in death confirmation reference; appeals by 12 convicts in 7/11, 2006, Mumbai train blasts caseThere were 7 coordinated blasts and over 180 deaths. The trial court had in 2015 sentenced five to death and seven to life imprisonment.Five months ago the HC had reserved the matter for judgment.On July 11, 2006, a series of bombs ripped through seven western suburban coaches of a train, killing 189 commuters and injuring 824. After an over eight-year trial, a special court under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) in October 2015 had conducted the trial.The convicts Kamal Ansari from Bihar, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh from Mumbai, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui from Thane, Naveed Hussain Khan from Secunderabad and Asif Khan from Jalgaon in Maharashtra were found guilty of planting the bombs and sentenced to death which by law needs to be confirmed by the HC before it is executable. The accused can appeal before the Supreme Court if the HC confirms the sentence.Ansari, one of the convicts on death row, died due to Covid-19 in Nagpur prison in 2021.The Maharashtra government death penalty was justified in the case. Those awarded life term were Tanveer Ahmed Mohammed Ibrahim Ansari, Mohammed Majid Mohammed Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh and Zameer Ahmed Latiur Rehman Shaikh. One of the accused, Wahid Shaikh, was acquitted by the trial court after nine years in jail.The Maharashtra government in 2015 approached the HC with pleas seeking confirmation of death penalty granted to five convicts. On the other hand, the convicts filed appeals challenging the special court order.In July 2024, the HC constituted a special bench led by Justice Kilor, which conducted regular hearings for nearly six monthsThe lawyers representing the convicts argued that their “extra-judicial confessional statements” obtained by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) through “torture” were inadmissible under the law.They also argued that the accused were falsely implicated, innocent and were languishing in jail for 18 years without substantial evidence and their prime years were gone in incarceration. The appellants said that the trial court erred in convicting them and therefore the said order be set aside.
