Maharashtra moves SC against acquittal of 7/11 train blasts convicts

Maharashtra government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court’s decision to acquit all 12 convicts in the 2006 Mumbai train blast case, in which 189 people had lost their lives.

 

The apex court will hear the case on Thursday.

 

A division bench of the high court (HC) on Monday overturned the conviction of all 12 accused, saying that cases against them had not been proven beyond a doubt.

 

Of the 12, five were facing the death penalty, while the others had been sentenced to life imprisonment. A bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak observed, “The prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case beyond reasonable doubts,” the HC observed.

 

The court said that the investigation and trial process were fraught with serious irregularities. The high court found the statements of nearly all prosecution witnesses unreliable.

 

“There was no reason for the taxi drivers or people in the train to remember the accused after almost 100 days of the blast,” the HC bench observed.

 

The overturning of the convictions comes nearly a decade after a special court in Mumbai awarded the death penalty to five and life sentences to the remaining seven convicts.

 

On Tuesday, appearing for the Maharashtra government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the apex court to hear the case on a priority basis.