2011 Mumbai triple blasts: Another accused gets bail after nearly 15 years in custody

MUMBAI: Nearly 15 years after being arrested in connection with the 2011 triple blasts in the city, Saddam Hussain Fairoz Khan was granted bail by a special MCOCA court on Friday

MUMBAI: Nearly 15 years after being arrested in connection with the 2011 triple blasts in the city, Saddam Hussain Fairoz Khan was granted bail by a special MCOCA court on Friday. The court observed that the trial’s continued progress could not override his prolonged incarceration or deny him the benefit of parity with the co-accused already released on bail.

Special judge Satyanarayan R Navander said Khan had remained in judicial custody since 2012 and had undergone about 15 years of incarceration without the trial reaching its conclusion. The court held that the ground on which co-accused Naquee Ahmed Wasi Ahmed Shaikh and Haroon Rashid Abdul Hameed Naik were granted bail in April — prolonged incarceration coupled with delay in conclusion of the trial —applied to Khan as .

The prosecution opposed the plea, arguing that the trial had substantially progressed since the April order and that only a few witnesses remained.

The court, however, said the progress of the trial did not amount to a sufficient change in circumstances to deny Khan parity with the two co-accused. It said that the basis for the relief was not merely the stage of the evidence but the “extraordinary length” of incarceration.

Khan’s bail is the latest in a series of reliefs granted to accused in the long-pending case on account of prolonged incarceration and parity. The Bombay High court had granted bail to Nadim Akhtar Ashfaque Shaikh in February after more than 14 years in custody. In April, the same special MCOCA court granted bail to Naquee Ahmed Shaikh and Haroon Naik after they had spent about 15 years in jail. In August, the court granted similar relief to Zainul Abideen Abdul Razaque Shaikh alias Zahid.

The blasts, which took place on July 13, 2011, at Opera House, Zaveri Bazar and Dadar during the evening rush, killed 27 people and injured 127. The three cases were subsequently transferred to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and clubbed into a common MCOCA case. Charges were framed in September 2019.

Khan has been directed to furnish a ₹1 lakh personal-recognisance bond with sureties of the same amount. He will also have to report to the ATS on the first Saturday of every month until the conclusion of the trial.