Bringing to justice the terrorists behind the 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts which claimed 189 lives and left more than 800 others injured, a special Maharashtra
Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Wednesday awarded capital punishment to five convicts and sentenced seven others to life imprisonment. “They shall be hanged by their neck till they are dead,” MCOCA court Judge YD Shinde ruled.
The judgement came 19 days after the court convicted 12 accused, all allegedly having links with the banned
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), for their involvement in what has come to be known as India’s 7/11. The Judge had on September 11 discharged one of the accused — Abdul Wahid Din Mohammed Shaikh — for want of sufficient evidence.
The five convicts who have been sentenced to death are: Kamal A Ansari (37), Ehtesham K Siddiqui (30), Faisal Attaur Rehman Sheikh (36), Asif Khan alias Junaid (38), and Naved Hussain Khan (30). The seven other convicts, who have been awarded life imprisonment are: Tanvir A Ansari (37), Mohammed Sajid Ansari (34), Sheikh Mohammed Ali Alam Sheikh (40), Mohammed Majid Shafi (30), Muzammil Sheikh (27), Soheil Mohammed Sheikh (43) and Zamir Ahmed Sheikh (36).
The pronouncement of sentences in the 7/11 case came after three-week-long arguments that saw Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakre terming the convicts “merchants of death” and seeking capital punishment to eight of the 12 convicts.
Expressing his satisfaction over the verdict, Maharashtra’s former ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi, who had supervised the investigation into the 7/11 case, said that the court upheld the evidence adduced by the prosecution. “The court has appreciated our evidence,” Raghuvanshi, who has now retired, said.
Upset with the verdict, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, a leading Muslim NGO crusading for the convicts in the 7/11 blasts case, said that it will challenge the order. “We will move the Bombay High Court against the MCOCA court order,” Gulzar Azmi, secretary of legal Aid department of Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, 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.
“The court has not erred, it has made a huge mistake. The convicts are innocent. We would appeal against the MCOCA court’s order and I am sure, all the accused would be acquitted,” Sharif Shaikh, one of the defence lawyers, said.
“The case was clear as a mirror and even a lay man could say that it was a framed up case,” Abdul Khan Wahab, another defence lawyer said.
“There is absolutely no evidence against them, the boys are very innocent. This case is not even fit for conviction”, senior advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhry said.
It may be recalled that in a time span of just 11 minutes — from 6.24 pm to 6.35 on July 11, 2006 — serial bomb blasts had ripped through the seven first class compartments of north-bound trains between Khar Road and Santacruz, Bandra and Khar Road, Jogeshwari and Mahim Junction, Mira Road and Bhayander, Matunga and Mahim Junction, and at Borivali. Explosives comprising a cocktail of RDX, ammonium nitrate and lubricant, concealed in pressure cookers, were used in the serial bombings.
While 187 people were killed and 824 others injured in the immediate aftermath of the train bombings, two more survivors — Parag Sawant and Amit Singh — succumbed later.
The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police filed a chargesheet in the 7/11 case before the Special MCOCA court on November 30, 2006, 142 days after the serial blasts. In its 10,667-page chargesheet, the ATS listed 28 accused. Of them, 13, all Indians, had been arrested. It had also named nine Pakistani nationals, including main conspirator Azam Cheema — all of whom are absconding.
During the trial that lasted for eight years, the prosecution examined 192 witnesses, including 8 IPS and 5 IAS officers as well as 18 doctors, while the defence lawyers examined 51 witnesses and one person was called as a court witness.