Mumbai, Jul 21 (PTI) Maharashtra minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Monday that the government will assess the merits of the Bombay High Court order acquitting all 12 accused in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts before deciding whether to challenge it in the Supreme Court.
Seven blasts had ripped through Mumbai local trains at various locations on the western line on July 11, 2006, killing more than 180 persons and injuring several others.
Nineteen years later, the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 accused, saying the prosecution utterly failed to prove the case and it was “hard to believe they committed the crime”.
A special bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said the prosecution has failed even to bring on record the type of bombs used in the crime and that the evidence relied on by it was not conclusive to convict the accused persons.
“The Maharashtra government will assess the merits of the case before deciding to challenge the HC decision to acquit all the accused. Before that, we will discuss aspects including the merits of the judgement and reasons for the acquittal. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will also look into it. The state government will move the Supreme Court only after the assessment,” Bawankule told reporters.
If the state has any additional information, CM Fadnavis will present it in detail, said Bawankule, who is a former president of the Maharashtra unit of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya has appealed to Fadnavis to constitute a team of investigators and legal experts to address the shortcomings in the previous probe by the police into the train bombings.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had conducted the probe into the case.
Calling the recent acquittals in the case “painful and shocking,” Somaiya said, “I have requested CM Devendra Fadnavis to set up a team of investigators and legal experts to overcome the shortcomings in the previous probe carried out by the police.” “The victims need justice and the terrorists must be hanged,” he added.
Ex-Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Nirupam of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena termed the verdict as unfortunate.
“So a question arises as to who engineered the blasts, he said, adding it has to be seen if there were shortcomings in the work of the probe agencies.
State minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal echoed Bawankule on deciding the next legal step following the high court verdict.
A special court had, in 2015, convicted 12 persons in the case, of whom five were sentenced to death and the remaining seven were given life imprisonment. One of the convicts died pending hearing of the appeal. PTI ND PR BNM NSK
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