7/11 blasts trial to resume

Nearly four years after the 7/11 serial train blasts, the trial in the case will resume Monday in a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Mumbai against 13 arrested accused, alleged to be members of the banned terror outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

Nearly four years after the 7/11 serial train blasts, the trial in the case will resume Monday in a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Mumbai against 13 arrested accused, alleged to be members of the banned terror outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

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The Supreme Court had in February 2008 stayed the trial, after one of the accused, Kamal Ansari, approached the court challenging the constitutional validity of a particular section pertaining to insurgency in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

However, the SC on April 25 this year dismissed the petition and vacated the stay on the trial.

"All the 13 accused would be produced before the special MCOCA Judge Y D Shinde tomorrow. The court would ask if they have appointed any lawyers to defend them after which summons to witnesses would be issued," special public prosecutor Raja Thakare said.

The first witness in the case, a police sub-inspector, had deposed before a special MCOCA court after which the accused had approached the SC.

The 13 accused have now approached the Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind, a Muslim organisation that arranges legal aid and which in turn has contacted several criminal lawyers to defend these suspects.

187 people were killed and over 800 injured after seven blasts occurred in Mumbai's suburban local trains on July 11, 2006.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), in its 10,000 page chargesheet in the case, stated that the accused were helped by terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to carry out to blasts.

The 13 arrested accused are Faisal Shaikh, Ali Bashir Khan, Mohammad Ali, Majid Shafi, Sajid Ansari, Kamal Ansari, Ethesham Siddiqui, Zameer Shaikh, Sohail Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Tanvir Ansari, Naveed Hussai and Abdul Shaikh.

The ATS had named 15 people as wanted accused in the case, which included LeT's Commander-in-Chief (Traning) Azam Cheema.