The Bombay High Court has acquitted all 12 Muslim men convicted in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, nearly 19 years after the coordinated explosions killed over 180 people and injured more than 800.
Justice Anil S. Kilor and Justice Shyam C. Chandak special division bench overruled the 2015 judgment of the special MCOCA court that had sentenced five of the accused to death and seven others to life imprisonment under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
The high court judged that the prosecution had not provided credible evidence. It recorded inconsistencies to prosecution claims and that the confessional statements were unreliable and that there was no complete chain of events. The judges ruled that the charges were beyond the reach of the prosecution based on reasonable doubt.
Indian media claimed, Kamal Ahmed Mohammad Wakeel Ansari one of the accused died in 2021 in Nagpur Jail serving his sentence due to COVID-19.
The 2006 Mumbai train bombings involved seven pressure cooker explosions on the Western Railway line during peak hours, marking one of the deadliest terror attacks in India. The acquittals are expected to be challenged in the Supreme Court by the Maharashtra government.
