7/11 train blasts case: After acquitting all 12 accused, HC says it did its duty

Mumbai | The Bombay High Court bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak, that on Monday acquitted all the 12 accused in the July 2006 serial train blasts in Mumbai, said it did its duty as judges.

The bench quashed the conviction of the 12 persons by a special court in 2015, noting the prosecution had "utterly failed" to prove the case and that it was hard to believe the accused committed the crime.

The prosecution has failed to even 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, it said.

The witness statements and alleged recoveries made from the accused have no evidentiary value, the HC said.

After the court pronounced its verdict, advocate Yug Chaudhary, appearing for the accused, said the judgment restores faith in humanity and judiciary as the 12 accused have been languishing in jail for 19 years for a crime they have not committed.

The bench then remarked that it was only doing its duty.

"We did our duty as judges. That is the responsibility cast upon us," the bench said.

Chaudhary told the HC that it was indeed a credit to the institution that 12 persons charged with the most serious offences could be held innocent after all these years and acquitted.

"It is a credit to the independence of the institution. More than restoring faith in the judiciary, this judiciary restores faith in humanity. This judgment will always be a sign of hope in times to come," Chaudhary said.

Senior advocate S Murlidhar, who appeared for some of the accused, also thanked the high court for its patient hearing and the acquittal.

During arguments in the case, Murlidhar, a former high court judge, submitted that the accused spent the better parts of their life in jail despite being innocent.

He had alleged a pattern wherein investigating agencies show "communal bias" while probing terror related cases.

The high court on Monday refused to confirm the September 2015 judgment of the special court convicting the 12 persons.

Of the 12, five were sentenced to death while the remaining seven were given life imprisonment.

Seven blasts ripped through Mumbai local trains at various locations on the western line, killing more than 180 persons and injuring several others on July 11, 2006.

Since 2015, the pleas pertaining to the 7/11 blasts case were not taken up even after the matter came up for hearing before 11 different benches.

In 2024, Ehtesham Siddiqui, who was handed the death penalty, filed an application in the HC seeking its intervention, expeditious hearing and disposal of the appeals.

After this, a special bench of Justices Kilor and Chandak was set up to hear the appeals last year.

On January 31 this year, the bench, after hearing the appeals on a daily basis for five months, reserved its order.