7/11 train blasts case: Maharashtra appoints special public prosecutor to conduct hearing of pleas after HC rap

On July 11, 2006, a series of bombs ripped through seven western suburban coaches, killing 189 commuters and injuring 824. After an over eight-year trial, a special court under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) in October 2015 awarded death penalty to five of the convicts and life terms to seven others.

The death row convicts included Kamal Ansari from Bihar, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh from Mumbai, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui from Thane, Naveed Hussain Khan from Secunderabad and Asif Khan from Jalgaon in Maharashtra. All of them were found guilty of planting the bombs.

In 2015, the Maharashtra government approached the high court, seeking the confirmation of death row granted to the five convicts, who also filed appeals challenging their convictions. However, Ansari died due to Covid-19 in Nagpur prison in 2021. The convicts who were sent to life imprisonment have also filed appeals against the same in the high court.

On Wednesday, the bench was informed that the government was yet to appoint a special public prosecutor to represent it in the death confirmation pleas of the state and their appeals by the convicts. It had warned the state of summoning the Chief Secretary of the government in case the SPP is not appointed in the matter.

On Friday, after a lawyer representing one of the convicts requested the bench to schedule the next hearing after six weeks instead of four weeks, the bench remarked, “You are getting four weeks. No question of adjournment on whatsoever ground. We will open arguments of convicts on October 5 at 10.30 am.”

It also noted in the order, “This matter is listed time and again before court and considering gravity we deem appropriate to fix the matter on October 5 for hearing on a day-to-day basis. We direct convicts to commence arguments. No adjournment on whatsoever ground will be allowed.”

Meanwhile, the lawyer representing Ansari, one of the convicts said that while his client had passed away, his family expressed intention to contest the death sentence. The court was also told that the accused have filed several miscellaneous applications seeking their physical presence during the hearings.

SPP Thakare opposed the same and said that the convicts could be produced through virtual mode as the same was allowed for one of them earlier before another bench.

The state government lawyer opposed the application for physical presence of the convicts citing the security concerns.

The court then allowed lawyers for convicts to apprise it on October 3 about why the physical presence of convicts was required and thereafter the death confirmation pleas and appeals will be heard from October 5.

The state government had last year told the High Court that the hearing on confirmation petitions would take at least five to six months as there were 92 prosecution witnesses and over 50 defence witnesses. Evidence in the case ran over 169 volumes and judgments of death sentences was nearly 2,000 pages.