After 19 years, the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, citing the prosecution's failure to prove the case. On Tuesday, 9 of the 11 acquitted individuals were released from prison, while two remain jailed due to other pending cases
-1753201552604_d.png "Mumbai 7/11 train blasts: After 19 years, 9 acquitted walk free, 2 remain jailed on other charges")
Bombay High Court. File Pic.
Nine of the eleven individuals recently acquitted by the Bombay High Court in the 7/11 serial train blasts case have been released from various prisons across Maharashtra. However, two others will remain incarcerated due to other pending cases against them, officials confirmed on Tuesday, reported news agency PTI.
Nineteen years after seven train blasts in Mumbai killed more than 180 people, the High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 accused. The court stated that the prosecution "utterly failed to prove the case" and found it "hard to believe the accused committed the crime."
Furthermore, the court allowed the appeals filed by the accused, challenging their convictions and sentences imposed by a special court in 2015. Of the 12, five had been sentenced to death and seven to life imprisonment by the special court. One of the death row convicts died in 2021, PTI reported.
Sajid Magrub Ansari, who was serving his sentence at the Nashik Road prison, was out on parole when the high court pronounced the acquittal verdict, an official said. On Tuesday morning, Ansari appeared before the prison officials, and after completing the formalities, he was released from the prison.
On Monday, the Yerawada Central Prison in Pune released one of the two prisoners who were serving the sentence. According to PTI, the prison department released Arif Khan Bashir Khan, but Mohammed Faisal Rahman Shaikh remained in jail as another case was pending against him.
Ethesham Siddiqui and Mohammed Ali Alam Sher Shaikh were released from the Nagpur central prison. However, one of their inmates, Naveed Khan, remained in prison as he was an undertrial in an attempted murder case. Kamal Ansari, a death row convict in the blasts case, died during the Covid-19 pandemic, the official added.
Dr Tanveer Ansari, Sohail Mahemud Shaikh, Zameer Ahmed Latipur Rahman Shaikh, and Mohammed Sajid Mohammed Shafi were released from the Amaravati prison, while Mujammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh was released from the Nashik Road central prison, PTI reported.
Siddiqui and Shaikh, who were released from Nagpur, reached Mumbai by flight this evening. They were welcomed at the airport by their emotional relatives and friends.
(With inputs from PTI)
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