Bombay HC To Deliver Verdict In 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings Case Today

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court, on Monday, will pronounce judgment  in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings case. 

A special bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak heard the the death confirmation pleas filed by the state government and the appeals by convicts. 

Four of the accused who were awarded death sentences are Mohammad Faisal Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan, Asif Khan, all of them bomb planters. The fifth accused sentenced to death, Kamal Ahamed Ansari, also an alleged bomb planter, died due to Covid in 2022.

The other seven – Tanvir Ahmed Ansari, Mohammad Majid Shafi, Shaikh Alam Shaikh, Mohd Sajid Ansari, Muzzammil Shaikh, Soheil Mehmood Shaikh and Zamir Ahmad Shaikh – have also approached the HC, challenging their life imprisonment.

About The Case

On July 11, 2006, RDX blasts at seven locations on the suburban rail network of Mumbai in a span of 11 minutes had claimed 189 lives and injured 827 commuters. After an eight-year-long trial, 12 out of the 13 accused were convicted. While five were given the death sentence, the remaining seven were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Initially, seven different FIRs were registered at local police stations. Considering the gravity of the offence, the case was transferred to the State Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) same month. 

While 13 accused were arrested, 15 people were shown as wanted, some of them allegedly in Pakistan. One of the accused died while planting the bomb in the train and the other was shot dead in an encounter. The ATS, invoked the MCOCA and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and the chargesheet was filed in November 2006. 

There were 192 prosecution witnesses and 51 defence witnesses and two court witnesses. As it was not possible to get all injured witnesses to court, the prosecution submitted 252 affidavits of the injured witnesses. 

Special public prosecutors Raja Thakare and A. Chimalkar appeared for the State. The special bench commences hearing in July 2024. It reserved judgment in the pleas in January this year. 

The special bench was constituted last year after Etheshaam Siddiqui, one of the convicts facing the death penalty, filed an application in the High Court seeking an early hearing and disposal of the appeals. The case has remained pending since a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court awarded death sentences to five persons in 2015. 

Eleven different benches commenced hearings but were unable to conclude.