Supreme Court stays HC verdict acquitting 12 in 2006 Mumbai train blasts case
The persons accused in the matter, who were released from prison, will not be required to go back to jail while the matter is being heard, said the bench.
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Bombay High Court order on Monday acquitting 12 persons accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, Live Law reported.
The persons who had been released from prison following the acquittal will not be required to go back to jail while the matter is being heard, the court said.
This came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Maharashtra government, told the bench of Justice MM Sundresh and NK Singh that he was not seeking directions for the persons accused in the matter to surrender, Live Law reported.
On Monday, the High Court acquitted 12 men in the case, holding that the prosecution had “utterly failed” in establishing their guilt. This came nearly 10 years after a special court had sentenced five of them to death and others to life imprisonment.
The Maharashtra government had challenged the acquittal on Tuesday.
The case pertains to the seven bomb blasts in suburban trains on Mumbai’s Western Railway line on July 11, 2006, killing 189 persons and injuring 824.
Following a trial under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, a special court had in October 2015 convicted the 12 persons.
The five persons who had been sentenced to death by the trial court are Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan and Asif Khan. All had been held guilty of planting the bombs.
Kamal Ansari died in 2021 due to Covid-19 while in the Nagpur Central Jail.
The seven others who had been sentenced to life imprisonment are Tanveer Ahmed Ansari, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh and Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Shaikh.
On Monday, a special High Court bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandar overturned the convictions, stating that the prosecution had failed to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt. It ordered the accused men to be released from jail if they were not required in any other case.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had described the verdict as “shocking”.
Also read:
- ‘Barbaric and inhuman torture’: Why Bombay HC acquitted all 12 convicted in 2006 Mumbai train blasts
- ‘They knew I was innocent’: Men acquitted of 2006 Mumbai train blasts rue years lost in jail
