The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Bombay High Court’s judgment that acquitted all 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts case. The High Court had reversed a 2015 ruling by a special MCOCA court that pronounced death sentences to five accused and life imprisonment to the remaining seven.
‘Accused not required to go back to prison’
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta told Supreme Court that he was not seeking an order to direct the accused persons to go back to prison but simply a stay of the judgment, saying that some of the observations made by the High Court in the judgment can impact other pending trials under the MCOCA. SG Mehta appeared for the Maharashtra government.
“Your lordships may consider saying, the judgment is stayed; however, they will not be required to come back to the prison,” SG said.
‘Stay on impugned judgement’: Supreme Court
“We have been informed that all the respondents have been released and there is no question of bringing them back to the prison. However, taking note of the submission made by the Solicitor General on the question of law, we are inclined to hold that the impugned judgment shall not be treated as a precedent. To that extent, there shall be a stay of the impugned judgment,” the bench said.
This comes after the Maharashtra government, in its appeal, raised serious concerns over the acquittal of all 12 convicts in the 2006 Mumbai blasts case, adding that the recovery of RDX from an accused cannot be believed as the seized explosives were not sealed with a lac seal.
The petition argued that all procedural safeguards mandated under Section 23(2) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were duly followed, including the necessary sanctions from senior officials such as Prosecution Witness No. 185, Anami Roy.
The government further contended that the High Court failed to consider the legitimacy of these sanctions, even though the prosecution’s evidence showed no significant inconsistencies.
All 12 accused were acquitted by the HC after the prosecution failed to prove that they “committed the crime”. One of the convicts sentenced to death passed away in 2021.
Over 180 people lost their lives when seven coordinated bomb blasts struck Mumbai’s local trains along the Western Railway line on July 11, 2006.
The High Court upheld the appeals filed by the accused, overturning their convictions and sentences issued by a special MCOCA court in 2015.