7/11 Mumbai Blasts| SC expresses concern over absconding Pakistani convicts
The Supreme Court today expressed concern over absconding Pakistani national who was recently released after the Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 men convicted in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings.
"We read some of the accused are Pakistani Nationals...", Justice MM Sundresh asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta today after the court stayed the high court's decision.
Court further asked SG Mehta over them absconding and how would they be tracked down.
The Supreme Court of India today stayed the Bombay High Court's decision from July 21, 2025, acquitting all 12 men convicted in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, which held that the prosecution had "utterly failed to establish the offence beyond reasonable doubt" on each count.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh has clarified that the stay is on the observations made in the judgment and that the same would not be treated as a precedent.
"We will issue notice..and we will stay the judgment, it cannot be read as a precedent..", the court said after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the state was seeking a stay of the order, not to bring the convicts back to jail but on grounds of certain findings of the High Court which would affect all of the MCOCA trials.
On 22nd July the SG had mentioned before a CJI Gavai led bench the SLP filed before the Supreme Court of India challenging the high court's decision.
High Court on Monday, July 21, 2025, acquitted all 12 accused previously convicted in connection with the horrific 2006 Mumbai train bombings, also known as the 7/11 blasts.
The blasts, which tore through the Western Railway suburban network on July 11, 2006, claimed the lives of at least 180 commuters and left hundreds injured. Following a protracted trial under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), a special court convicted 12 accused in October 2015, five were sentenced to death and the remaining seven to life imprisonment. The State had since appealed for confirmation of the death penalties, while the convicts challenged their convictions. The case remained before the High Court for nearly a decade, finally being expedited during 2024–2025 with hearings running day‑to‑day.
Case Title: THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA vs. MOHD FAISAL ATAUR RAHMAN SHAIKH AND ORS
Hearing Date: July 24, 2025
Bench: Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh