Poll | 7/11 Mumbai blasts: Is death sentence really rare in India?

Five convicts out of twelve were sentenced to death by a special court on Wednesday for their involvement in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings.

Five convicts out of twelve were sentenced to death by a special court on Wednesday for their involvement in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings.

One of the 12 men, convicted of planning several blasts on crowded commuter trains in the financial capital of Mumbai in 2006, is escorted by police to a court in Mumbai, India, September 30, 2015. An Indian court sentenced five men to death and jailed seven for life on Wednesday for planning bomb blasts that ripped through Mumbai commuter trains in 2006, killing more than 180 people and wounding hundreds. (Reuters Photo)

The Mumbai court also pronounced sentences for seven other convicts, who were given life imprisonment for their role in the local train blasts that killed 188 people and injured over 800.

The convicts who planted the bombs in various trains -- Faisal Sheikh, Asif Khan, Kamal Ansari, Ehtesham Sidduqui and Naveed Khan -- were sentenced to death by special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court judge Yatin Shinde.

Seven blasts struck the first-class compartments of crowded local trains in a span of 11 minutes during the evening rush hour on July 11, 2006.