Contesting the Bombay High Court’s stunning decision to acquit all twelve accused in the 7/11 Mumbai train bombings, the Maharashtra government has knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court.
The HC judgment reversed death and life sentences handed down nearly a decade earlier by the special trial court.
Earlier, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), a special court in October 2015, convicted twelve men, sentencing five to death and the remaining to life imprisonment.
The State of Maharashtra has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the case titled The State of Maharashtra v. Kamal Ahmed Mohd. Vakil Ansari and Ors.
According to media reports, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State, urgently mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai. “It is a serious matter. SLP is ready. Please list it tomorrow. There is urgency,” the SG asserted.
To this, the CJI responded, “We read 8 accused released already,” and eventually agreed to list the case the next day.
The case concerns the horrific serial bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai on July 11, 2006, where seven bombs ripped through suburban trains on the Western Railway line, claiming 187 lives and injuring more than 800 people.
The five men — Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan, and Asif Khan — were all found guilty of planting deadly explosives.
Ansari died in 2021 due to COVID-19 while incarcerated in Nagpur prison.
The remaining seven—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—were sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court.
As required under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the trial court had referred the death sentences to the High Court for confirmation. Simultaneously, the convicted individuals filed appeals challenging their sentences.
In a sweeping and scathing judgment, the Bombay High Court Bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak overturned the convictions, declaring that “the prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case beyond reasonable doubts.”
The High Court eviscerated the prosecution’s case, stating that the investigation and trial process were riddled with grave irregularities. The Court observed that the prosecution gave the public a “misleading sense of resolution” while “the true threat remains at large.”
The judgment further castigated the reliability of the prosecution witnesses. The Court questioned the credibility of witnesses, stating there was no plausible reason for taxi drivers or train passengers to remember the accused more than 100 days after the blasts.
On the matter of recovered evidence—bombs, guns, maps—the Court was unequivocal. It ruled that such recoveries were “immaterial and not important to the case” since the prosecution had utterly failed to even identify the specific type of bomb used in the attacks.
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