The Supreme Court questioned the Maharashtra government’s rush to list its appeal against the acquittal of all accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case. The Court reminded that stays on acquittals are granted only in the “rarest of rare” cases.
New Delhi: Today, on July 23, the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday questioned why the Maharashtra government was in such a hurry to get its appeal listed against the recent judgment of the Bombay High Court, which had acquitted all 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai train bomb blasts case.
This matter was mentioned before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and also comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi, just before the Court was about to finish its work for the day.
The Bench, while responding to the State’s request, remarked,
“See, what is the hurry? Eight are already released. Stay of acquittal is granted only in the rarest of rare cases.”
The lawyer representing the Maharashtra government told the Court that although the Bench had agreed to list the case this week, the Supreme Court Registry had pointed out a procedural error in the appeal file around 3 PM on Tuesday.
Due to this, there was a chance that the matter might not get listed, and so the counsel mentioned it again before the Court to avoid any delays.
The counsel said,
“The bench was pleased to list it tomorrow. But this defect has just been notified now. So just in case the matter doesn’t come up due to the Registry process, we are mentioning this as a measure of abundant caution.”
After the Court again asked why the matter was being pushed urgently and reminded that a stay on acquittal is very rarely granted, the lawyer responded by saying,
“Perhaps we can convince your Lordships that this is indeed rarest of rare.”
This is the second time that an early hearing has been requested by the government in this case. Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had also made a similar request on Tuesday.
This entire case goes back to the horrifying serial bomb blasts that took place on July 11, 2006. That day, seven bombs exploded in local suburban trains running on Mumbai’s Western Railway line.
The blasts killed 187 innocent people and injured more than 800 others. It was one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country.
A long trial was held under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), and in October 2015, a special court gave its verdict. Out of the accused, five were sentenced to death while seven others were given life imprisonment.
The five men who received the death sentence were Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan and Asif Khan.
All of them were found guilty of actually planting the bombs on the trains. However, one of them — Kamal Ansari — died in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic while he was lodged in Nagpur jail.
The other seven accused who were sentenced to life imprisonment were Tanveer Ahmed Ansari, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh and Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Shaikh.
After the trial court’s verdict, all the convicted persons appealed against their sentences before the Bombay High Court.
At the same time, since five of them were given the death penalty, the trial court also referred the matter to the High Court for confirmation of those sentences, as required under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
However, the Bombay High Court, in a major twist, overturned the trial court’s judgment and acquitted all 11 convicted persons.
Nine of them were released immediately. Two of the accused — Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh and Naveed Hussain Khan — are still in custody because they have other criminal cases pending against them.
The Bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak delivered the verdict on Monday, stating that
“the prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case beyond reasonable doubts.”
The High Court criticised the entire investigation and trial process, pointing out serious issues and shortcomings.
The judges stated that the way the case was handled by the prosecution gave the general public a
“misleading sense of resolution”
while the
“true threat remains at large.”
The judgment also highlighted that most of the prosecution witnesses were unreliable. The Court questioned how it was possible for taxi drivers and train passengers to identify the accused after almost 100 days had passed since the incident.
The Bench observed that
“there was no reason for the taxi drivers or people in the train to remember the accused after almost 100 days of the blast.”
Additionally, the High Court said that the recovery of materials like bombs, guns, and maps was not helpful in proving the case.
The judges explained that such evidence was not significant because the prosecution
“failed to identify the type of the bomb used for the blasts.”
The Supreme Court’s remarks on Wednesday now raise a question mark over the future course of the State’s appeal.
The Court’s hesitation in granting a stay and its emphasis that such orders are only passed in “rarest of rare cases” may suggest that the State will have to present a very strong argument to reverse the High Court’s findings.
Case Title:
The State of Maharashtra v. Kamal Ahmed Mohd. Vakil Ansari and Ors.
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