The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Bombay High Court verdict in the Mumbai train blasts case to the limited extent that it will not be treated as a precedent in other cases.
The Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh refused to stay the release of the eleven accused persons who were acquitted by the High Court. One of the accused had passed away in 2021.
The serial bomb blasts occurred in Mumbai on July 11, 2006. Seven exploded in suburban trains of the city’s Western Railway line. It killed 187 people and left more than 800 injured.
The Court said that the judgment of the High Court will not be treated as a precedent and there will be a stay to that limited extent.
“All respondents released and thus no question to bring them back to prison. However, on the question of law we will say that impugned judgment is not treated as precedent in any other cases. Therefore to that extent let there be stay on the impugned judgment,” the Court said.
Appearing for the State of Maharashtra, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said that the judgment could affect other trials under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). He, therefore, sought a stay on the verdict. He, however, did not press for a stay on the release of the acquitted persons.
“So far as stay is concerned, I am not on liberty (of the accused). There are some findings which will affect all our MCOCA trials. The judgment can be stayed and release be not hampered,” Mehta said.
The Court agreed and granted limited stay on the judgment as requested. It also proceeded to issue notice to the accused
“We will issue notice. Let the parties come. We will hear them and decide,” the Court said.
After a long trial, the special court in October 2015 sentenced five of the accused to death and seven to life imprisonment.
The five who got death penalty were Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan and Asif Khan. All were held guilty of planting the bombs.
Ansari died in 2021 due to COVID-19 in a prison in Nagpur.
The seven accused sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court were 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.
The convicts had then filed appeals against their convictions and sentences. In accordance with Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the trial court also made a reference to the High Court for confirmation of the death sentences.
The High Court, however, ended up acquitting all eleven accused and also castigated the prosecution.
The Bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said that “the prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case beyond reasonable doubts”.
The High Court described the investigation and trial process as fraught with serious irregularities and observed that the prosecution’s case gave the public a “misleading sense of resolution” while “the true threat remains at large.”
The High Court found the statements of nearly all prosecution witnesses unreliable. According to the Court, there was no reason for the taxi drivers or people in the train to remember the accused after almost 100 days of the blast.
It added that the recovery of evidence such as bombs, guns, maps etc was immaterial and not important to the case, as the prosecution failed to identify the type of the bomb used for the blasts.
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