Mumbai train blasts: HC to soon decide on hearing appeals of convicts

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday assured convicts in the July 2006 Mumbai local train serial blasts case that it would soon fix a date for hearing their appeals against conviction, noting the appeals have been pending for an extended period.

The assurance comes ahead of the 18th anniversary of the 7/11 blasts that killed more than 180 people.

Of the 12 convicts, five were sentenced to death and seven others to life imprisonment by a trial court in September 2015. The state government had filed an appeal in the HC seeking confirmation of the death penalty. The convicts also filed appeals challenging their convictions and sentences.

A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said the appeals have been pending for quite some time.

A Mumbai train blast convict, handed death sentence nine years ago, had moved the High Court, seeking an early hearing of the 7/11 train blast appeal, which has been pending for as many years.

Convict Ehtesham Siddique approached the HC through his lawyer, Yug Mohit Chaudhry, who submitted that the accused have been behind bars for the past 18 years without their pleas being heard.

On July 11, 2006, seven blasts were reported from different locations on the Western Railway line of Mumbai’s local trains, killing over 180 people and injuring several others.

“They (accused persons) were arrested in 2006, and convicted in 2015. This is the oldest confirmation of death sentence petitions pending before this court. Since these appeals and petitions for confirmation were filed in the high court,

14 other petitions of other convicts for confirmation have been heard but train blast convicts are not being heard,” Chaudhry said.

He said appeals have not yet been taken up for hearing owing to 190 huge volumes of documents, besides 192 prosecution witnesses and 51 defence witnesses.

The bench said it would not be deterred by voluminous documents and sought to know the time frame for concluding arguments in the appeals.

“We need a time estimate of how long this will

take (for the hearing to conclude). We understand that 18 years is a long time,” the

bench said.

Chaudhry and special public prosecutor Raja Thakare informed the HC that if the matter is taken up for hearing on a day-to-day basis then it can be wrapped up in six months.

The bench said it would decide this week.