Mumbai, July 21 (PTI) The Maharashtra ATS will decide the future course of action after analysing the Bombay High Court verdict which acquitted all 12 accused in the 7/11 Mumbai train bomb blasts case and consulting the special public prosecutor.
Nineteen years after seven train blasts here killed more than 180 persons, the High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 accused, saying the prosecution utterly failed to prove the case and it was “hard to believe the accused committed the crime”.
The HC judgement comes as a major embarrassment to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which probed the case. The agency had claimed that the accused were members of the banned outfit Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and had hatched the conspiracy with Pakistani members of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The ATS stated that the special MCOCA court on September 30, 2015, handed capital punishment to five accused and life imprisonment to seven others, while acquitting another in the July 11, 2006, serial train blasts case.
The ATS said ASG Raja Thakare and Special Public Prosecutor Chimalkar argued for the state in the HC over appeals on the confirmation of the death penalty and life sentence.
The matter was heard between July 2024 and January 27, 2025, when the prosecution and defence completed their respective arguments.
The high court rejected the death reference of the five accused and acquitted the seven convicted accused by accepting their appeal and cancelled the order of the MCOCA court, the ATS statement said.
Accordingly, the ATS will consult the special public prosecutor and analyse the High Court’s judgement before deciding the next action. PTI DC NSK
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