Mumbai, Sep 11 (Mumbai Mirror): A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Friday will pronounce its judgement in the July 11, 2006 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai local trains, which claimed 187 lives and left over 800 injured. The court, presided over by Special Judge YD Shinde, had reserved the order about a year ago.
The court will pronounce its verdict on charges framed against all 13 accused. Judge Shinde has directed that all the 13 accused be produced before the court by 11 am.
Seven blasts had taken place in the first class compartments of seven local trains on the Western Line. One of the injured died a few years later, while another died earlier this year, taking the number of casualties to 189.
The blasts occurred at or around Bhayander, Borivali, Jogeshwari, Khar Road, Bandra, Mahim and Matunga Road stations. The case was investigated by the state Anti Terrorism Squad, which arrested 13 accused from Mumbai and Bihar, most belonging to the banned Student's Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
The prosecution had initially claimed the terror strike to be the handiwork of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
The 13 arrested between July 20 and October 3, 2006 are Faisal Shaikh, Ali Bashir Khan, Mohammad Ali, Majid Shafi, Sajid Ansari, Kamal Ansari, Ethesham Siddiqui, Zameer Shaikh, Sohail Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Tanvir Ansari, Naveed Hussain and Abdul Shaikh.
The ATS had filed an 11,000-page charge sheet in November 2006 under MCOCA. The applicability of the stringent act was challenged initially in the Bombay High Court and later in the Supreme Court, with the judgement ultimately going in the prosecution's favour. This, however, caused a fouryear delay in the case's progress. During the trial, 239 witnesses were examined and over 16,000 pages of evidence were presented before the special court.