Almost a year after three synchronised bomb blasts ripped through the city, killing 27 people and injuring 130 others, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) yesterday filed a 4,000-page chargesheet in a special MCOCA court against four accused in the case. The accused, Naque Ahmed, Nadeem Shaikh, Kanwar Pathrija and Haroon Naik, face trial under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), sections of the Indian Penal Code and other laws.

A copy of main accused Nadeem’s confession before a magistrate has also been filed in the court. Five other accused including the trio Waqas, Tabrez and Yasin Bhatkal, alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives who played a key role in engineering the blasts, are absconding. According to the ATS, the trio had rented a third-floor flat in Habib building, Byculla where they allegedly assembled the explosives before executing the coordinated blasts in the evening peak hours of July 13, 2011 at the crowded locales of Dadar (W), Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House. Forensic experts who had collected samples from the terror sites had initially opined that ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel oil was used for explosives while digital timers were used to trigger the blasts.