Mumbai train blasts case: 19 years of injustice

A chilling tale of torture, fabricated and flimsy evidence, and a deeply flawed investigation by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) — these, and other such reasons, were stated by the Bombay High Court while acquitting 12 persons accused of the 11 July 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts.

The destruction of call data records and unproven claims of visits to or visitors from Pakistan were key reasons for the acquittal of the accused, despite the same evidence leading to their conviction and sentencing by a special MCOCA court in 2015. After 19 years in prison, all 12 are back home, their lives and reputations irrevocably scarred.

The seven blasts, through explosives placed in pressure cookers, on trains near Khar, Bandra, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Matunga, Mira Road-Bhayander and Borivali stations, left 187 people dead and over 800 injured.

The high court recorded its horror at the details of torture and third degree, corroborated by medical reports, placed on record. Sajid Ansari, one of the accused, described how he was spreadeagled and given electric shocks during interrogation. One policeman reportedly told him, “I agree… you are innocent, but have you not heard… a frustrated cat scratches the pole; you are the pole and I am the cat.”

Another accused Abdul Wahid Shaikh, who was acquitted in 2015, recalled — in a piece he wrote in The Wire — how “the cycle of police torture was so brutal that when they tortured one of us, they made the rest of us watch. We were horrified even before the torture began.”

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In an interview to YouTuber Sohit Mishra, Abdul said he was told that since the ATS could not arrest any Hindu, he was an obvious target. He was repeatedly told, “Only Muslims become terrorists… If you do not confess, we will rape your mother and wife in front of you.”

Such threats, torture and abuse by the ATS and Maharashtra Police forced all of them to confess, which they later retracted in court. Other evidence was equally flimsy.

Some of them had visited Pakistan, legally on valid visas, but the ATS argued they visited Pakistan to receive training. The 667-page judgement said the evidence placed on record was not enough to prove guilt. It pointed out the suspicious conduct of the investigators who destroyed all call data records (CDRs). “The prosecution could have easily established the location and movement… Instead, the CDR was destroyed. This act raises serious doubts over the integrity of the investigation... and amounts to a grave violation of the right to a fair trial,” the bench held.

Mohammad Ali Shaikh feels his campaign to close video, massage parlours and gambling dens in the neighbourhood had made him a marked man. With extortion money through such illegal operations drying up, he started receiving threats.

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His arrest did not, therefore, surprise him. But he was flabbergasted at the evidence — a visit by an alleged bomb-maker from Pakistan. The prosecution, however, could not offer any proof of the visit nor identify the visitor.

Mohammad Ali said his 11-year-old son was thrashed in front of him and the family harassed by frequent visits by ATS officials at home. He was told he could die in an encounter. His father and a brother passed away during his detention.

Each of the 12 accused was pressured to turn approver. The allurements included a job in Dubai, Rs 10 lakh down payment and a monthly payment of Rs 10,000 to the family left behind in Mumbai, said one.

Abdul, now a lawyer, recalls how the late assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Vinod Bhatt was pressurised to fabricate evidence and produce fake witnesses. Bhatt refused. He was mysteriously found dead on the railway tracks where the bomb blasts occurred. Abdul has demanded compensation and rehabilitation from the government and legal reforms to prevent a similar miscarriage of justice.

Muzammil, a doctor by training and a social worker, is finding it difficult to reconcile to the terror tag and the years lost in imprisonment. The high court verdict may be step towards accountability, but for the 12 who lost the prime years of their lives, true justice remains elusive.