7/11 blasts: Victims’ families hail verdict
1 Oct 2015 6:38 AM IST
Families of the victims of the 2006 serial train blasts in Mumbai that killed 189 people hailed as the death penalty awarded to five convicts and life sentence to the remaining as a “correct punishment” on Wednesday.
For the family of Parag Sawant, who became an enduring image of the carnage and died recently after battling for life in a hospital for nine years, justice will be served only after the convicts awarded capital punishment are hanged.
The family of the 189 people who lost their lives and the 829 injured in seven powerful blasts that ripped local suburban trains between Matunga and Mira Road on the Western line on July 11, 2006, while welcoming the decision of the special court said the trial should have been expedited.
The trial was concluded by a special MCOCA court nine years after the blasts.
“Justice will be done only after the convicts are hanged to death. We have lost our son. What happened to us should not happen to anyone else in future. A strong message has to be sent by our judicial system that such acts will not be dealt with lightly,” Sawant’s father Jayprakash said.
Sawant died in July this year becoming the 189th victim. He is survived by his parents, wife, a minor daughter and a brother.
Dahisar resident Ashok Waghela, a CA, rarely travelled by local train. But on July 11, 2006, he went to meet a client in South Mumbai and fell victim to the blasts. His wife Yogita was left to fend for herself and her two children. “The court has given a correct punishment. They (convicts) took so many lives in a matter of a few minutes, but it took nine years to prove them guilty,” she said.
Her son and daughter are pursuing <g data-gr-id="71">CA,</g> while she takes up projects like selling garments during festivals to support her family.
Former ATS chief welcomes verdict
Former ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi on Wednesday welcomed the court’s verdict in the 2006 serial blasts on Mumbai local trains, saying it had vindicated the efforts of his team of officers which conducted the probe even as the defence counsel said they will appeal in the High Court. “I congratulate all my 15 officers, who had probed the case. The verdict is a vindication of our efforts. I am happy that the court has appreciated the evidence and given an appropriate quantum of punishment in the case,” he said.
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