7/11 blasts: MCOCA court rejects death row convict’s plea for re-investigation

The court said it was the prerogative of the investigating officer to seek further investigation if required and not the accused

Mumbai: The special MCOCA court on Wednesday rejected the plea filed by Ehtesham Siddiqui, a death row convict in the 7/11 train bombings in Mumbai, seeking further investigation in the serial blasts case.

Siddiqui, a Mira Road resident and an active member of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was said to be a core conspirator. As per the prosecution case, Siddiqui had planted one of the bombs, purportedly assembled by some Pakistani nationals, in a train which exploded at Mira Road. (Hindustan Times)

The court said it was the prerogative of the investigating officer to seek further investigation if required and not the accused. “It is for the investigating officer to go through the relevant evidence which came before him for filing supplementary chargesheet against the wanted accused. It is for the prosecution or investigating officer to seek for further investigation and therefore, the present application is devoid of merits and needs to be rejected,” said special judge AM Patil while rejecting Siddiqui’s plea filed in July this year.

Seven powerful blasts had ripped through the first-class compartments of local trains on the western line in Mumbai in 11 minutes on the evening of July 11, 2006. The blasts took place during rush-hour between 6:24 and 6:35 pm, killing 188 persons and injuring 800 others.

Siddiqui, a Mira Road resident and an active member of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was said to be a core conspirator. As per the prosecution case, Siddiqui had planted one of the bombs, purportedly assembled by some Pakistani nationals, in a train which exploded at Mira Road.

Siddiqui is lodged at Nagpur central prison, from where he had written a letter to the designated MCOCA court in July this year, stating that the prosecution claimed that one of the accused in the bombings case, Abdul Razzak, had in 2006 brought three Pakistani nationals to assemble the bombs through the Kutchh border. Siddiqui said, Razzak, who died by suicide in October 2012 in Hyderabad, was behind bars in 2006, as he was arrested for a local crime in 2005 and was granted bail only in 2007. As Abdul Razzak was in custody, it would be wrong to say that he brought three Pakistani nationals to the city in May 2006, Siddiqui claimed.

Based on the same grounds, Siddiqui also questioned the truthfulness of the deposition of a witness, who claimed that he had seen Razzak between February 2006 and June 2006 along with the three “foreign” guests.

The plea to reinvestigate was opposed by the prosecution stating that the special court does not have the authority to order further investigation, as the case to confirm death sentence for five convicts and their appeals against it was pending before the Bombay high court.

Besides, the prosecution said, “How this applicant could fix the identity of Abdul Razzak beats comprehension” and added that, “even during the trial, the applicant (Siddiqui) had made attempts to raise doubts about the investigation and the complicity of the accused booked in the railway bombings case.”

The ATS added that during the trial, 192 prosecution witnesses and 51 defense witnesses were examined and the applicant himself had testified as a defense witness.