2006 serial train blasts: Court rejects convict’s plea for action against three witnesses

Siddiqui, who was sentenced to death, is currently lodged in Nagpur Central Jail. He had filed the application from jail and argued it in person via video-conference. Siddiqui had cited three witnesses who had deposed. One of them had claimed that he had seen some guests from Pakistan at Siddiqui’s home. The witness had said during the trial that Siddiqui had introduced four persons, three of whom, the prosecution claimed, had planted bombs in the local trains. The witness claimed that one Abdul Razzak, who was present with them, had brought the three Pakistani nationals to India to carry out the blast.

Siddiqui said in his plea that Razzak had died by suicide in 2012 in Hyderabad. In a suicide note found on him, Razzak had said that he was fed up of the police cases against him, including the train blasts case, where he was named as an absconding accused. Siddiqui’s plea had said that Razzak was in jail from 2005 till 2007 in connection with the Sai Baba Trust blast case and therefore could not have been seen by the witness at his home in 2006.

The ATS had countered Siddiqui’s plea, stating that it was beyond its comprehension how he had ascertained the absconding accused Razzak named in the case to be the same person who died by suicide. The court said that the first witness related to Razzak had deposed a long time ago and it cannot be said that he had given a false testimony.

Siddiqui had also claimed discrepancies in the deposition of two other witnesses, including one panch witness who claimed that he had never been a witness in another case. The court said Siddiqui had the opportunity during the trial to show that the panch was a habitual witness and at this stage he cannot be labelled as a fake witness.

The third witness Siddiqui cited was one who had spoken about having met a co-accused in the case, Mohammed Ali, along with Siddiqui. The convict in his plea said that the same witness in another case had denied knowing Ali and therefore his deposition could not be relied on. The court said the witness had deposed in the second case in 2017 and that cannot be the basis to discard his previous testimony in this case.

Siddiqui was among the five men sentenced to death in the train blasts case. The confirmation pleas are pending before the Bombay High Court. In various pleas and his appeal in the High Court, Siddiqui claimed that he and the others were falsely implicated.