Mumbai, Maharashtra – The Maharashtra government has moved swiftly to challenge the Bombay High Court’s recent verdict that acquitted all 12 men previously convicted in the devastating 2006 Mumbai train blasts. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the state’s plea on July 24, setting the stage for a crucial legal battle.
This decision by the state follows the Bombay High Court’s judgment delivered on Monday, which overturned the convictions initially handed down by a special court in 2015. The 2015 trial had resulted in five death sentences and seven life imprisonments for the accused. However, the High Court, in its scathing 671-page judgment, ruled that the prosecution had “utterly failed” to prove its case and declared it “hard to believe the accused committed the crime.”
One of the death row convicts, Kamal Ansari, had died in 2021. The remaining accused were ordered to be released, unless they were held in other cases.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed his shock at the High Court’s verdict, describing it as “shocking” and confirming the government’s intention to appeal to the apex court. “I will go through the entire (HC) order. I have discussed with the lawyers, and the high court verdict will be challenged in the Supreme Court,” he stated.
The July 11, 2006, attacks were a horrific series of seven coordinated explosions on Mumbai’s suburban trains during the evening rush hour, claiming over 180 lives and injuring hundreds. These blasts caused widespread devastation across the city’s western railway line and triggered national outrage.
The special High Court bench, comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak, systematically dismantled the prosecution’s case. They found that the evidence presented lacked credibility, and the confessional statements of the accused were deemed inadmissible, with the bench remarking that they appeared to be copied and extracted under torture, lacking authenticity.
“The prosecution has utterly failed to prove the case against the accused. It is hard to believe the accused committed the crime,” the bench reiterated. The judgment further highlighted systemic lapses in the investigation, including poor preservation of key evidence, the mechanical application of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), and the failure to examine crucial witnesses.