‘Prosecution utterly failed…’: Bombay HC acquits all 12 accused in 7/11 Mumbai train blasts

The Bombay High Court, admonishing the prosecution for ‘utterly failing’ the case, quashed the conviction of all of the 12 people in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, and acquitted them. The judgment comes 19 years after the terror attack that shook Mumbai’s Western Railway network. The blasts killed 189 people and left around 800 people injured.

"The prosecution has utterly failed to prove the case against the accused. It is hard to believe that the accused committed the crime. Hence their conviction is quashed and set aside," the High Court bench, comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak, said. The evidence presented by the prosecution was not conclusive to convict the accused persons, they said.

"The defence had raised serious questions about the test identification parade. Many witnesses remained silent for unusually long periods, some over four years, and then suddenly identified the accused. This is abnormal," the bench noted.

The court also refused to confirm the death penalty imposed on five of the convicts as well as the life imprisonment of the remaining seven. The accused would be released from the jail if they are not wanted in any other case. The convicts were produced before the court via video conference on Monday. 

The court observed that key witnesses were unreliable, identification parades were questionable, and confessional statements were extracted through torture. One witness was found to have deposed in multiple unrelated crime branch cases, including the Ghatkopar blast case, making his testimony unreliable. Several others failed to explain how they could suddenly recall and identify the accused after years.

The judges also highlighted procedural lapses. Some witnesses were not examined during the trial. Regarding recoveries like RDX and other explosive material, the prosecution could not establish that the evidence was preserved properly until it reached the Forensic Science Laboratory, the bench said.

In 2015, a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court had convicted 12 people, out of which five were sentenced to death. On July 11, 2006, seven blasts ripped through Mumbai local trains at various locations on the western line.