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The high court was hearing various miscellaneous applications filed by the convicts from jail, as well as their appeals, and the state government's plea for the confirmation of the death penalty awarded by the trial court
The Bombay High Court has recently rejected six applications filed by the convicts of the 2006 Mumbai Train Blasts Case.
A division bench comprising Justice Nitin W Sambre and Justice NR Borkar was hearing various miscellaneous applications filed by the convicts from jail, as well as their appeals, and the state government's plea for the confirmation of the death penalty awarded by the trial court.
The accused in the train blast case were convicted by the trial court in 2015. The confirmation of the death penalty and the appeals filed by the convicts are scheduled to be heard by the high court on October 12, 2023.
Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddique, one of the convicts, had filed two applications to the high court in 2023 from jail.
In both applications, Siddique requested bail from the high court and the quashing of the judgment passed by the trial court. However, the high court rejected these applications, citing that the hearing before the high court was already scheduled.
Another convict, Mohammad Sajid Margub Ansari, filed three applications from jail.
In one of his applications, Ansari requested the court's permission to be transported from Nashik to Mumbai to take his third-semester LLB exam. However, the application was rejected because he did not specify the dates of the examinations, rendering it vague.
The high court also rejected two other applications from Ansari. One sought the renewal of his admission to Siddharth Law College, and the other requested the suspension of his sentence for release on bail. Both applications were rejected by the court.
Muzzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, another convict in the case, had filed an application requesting the court's permission to talk to his elderly, bed-ridden mother through video calling or telephone.
However, the division bench rejected this application, explaining that the appeal itself had already been scheduled for final hearing, and therefore, the application did not warrant further consideration.
Additionally, the bench allowed the application filed by the convicts seeking condonation of delay to file the appeal against the order of the trial court.
The convicts in the train blast case have also filed applications to the high court requesting their physical presence during the proceedings.
The division bench has asked Additional Public Prosecutor Mankuwar Deshmukh to take instructions by 10 October regarding whether the physical presence of the convicts can be permitted.
Special Public Prosecutor and Senior Advocate Raja Thakare will commence his arguments on confirmation of the death penalty on 12th October 2023.
On July 11, 2006, an initial blast occurred just after 6:20 p.m. in a local train travelling between Churchgate and Borivali, specifically between the Khar and Santacruz stations. Around the same time, another explosion took place in a local train between Bandra and Khar.
Following these incidents, five additional explosions were reported in Jogeshwari, Mahim, Mira Road-Bhayandar, Matunga-Mahim, and Borivali.
A sequence of explosions occurred in seven coaches of suburban trains, resulting in the tragic death of 189 commuters and causing injuries to 824 individuals.
Following a trial lasting over eight years, a special court operating under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) pronounced the death penalty for five convicts (Ehtesham Sidduiqui, Asif Khan, Faisal Shaikh, Naveed Khan, and Kamal Ansari) and life imprisonment for seven others in October 2015.
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