On a day when the Maharashtra Government and scores of Mumbai suburban railway commuters welcomed the MCOCA court’s verdict sentencing five of the convicts in the 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts to death and handing life imprisonment to seven others, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra (Arshad Madni), a Muslim NGO, said that it would challenge the verdict in the Bombay High Court.
The Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra had provided legal aid to the 13 accused in the 7/11 train blasts case.
“We are going to challenge this order in the Bombay High Court” Gulzar Azmi, the Secretary of legal Aid department of Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, in his first reaction after the special MCOCA court announced its verdict, said.
“We respect the court order, but we would move the appropriate court. One of the accused Abdul Wahid has been found innocent nearly a decade after the incident. We would get the best counsels in the Bombay High Court,” Azmi said.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government on Wednesday welcomed the court verdict in the 7/11 serial train blasts case, saying that it was committed to strengthen the justice delivery system in the State.
Expressing satisfaction on the judgement, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said in the last one year the conviction rate has gone up from 9 per cent to 35 per cent.
“During the last one year, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has worked on plugging the loopholes in the judicial delivery system,” he said.
In a related development, Ataur Rehman, a relative of convicts Faizal and Muzammil, said that his family would move the High Court against the MCOCA court’s order.
Abdul Wahid Shaikh, an accused who was acquitted in the case, said, “I was arrested in 2006 and acquitted in 2015. During these nine years, I was completely devastated...I lost my job and also my wife and children suffered. I was harassed mentally and physically because of my arrest in this case.”
“One should feel happy after getting acquitted, but as my 12 innocent brothers are inside I am not happy,” he said.
“We will file an appeal for the 12 brothers (convicts) in the High Court with the help of Jamait — Ulema against this verdict,” Shaikh said.