Nine years after the deadly Mumbai suburban train bombing claimed over 200 lives and injured more than 800, a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court is likely to pronounce its judgement in the case on Friday.
The bombs that went off in a span of just 11 minutes, targeted the crowded suburban train services during the evening peak hours. The bombs kept in pressure cookers went off in north-bound locals on Western Railway. Bhayander, Borivali, Jogeshwari, Khar Road, Bandra, Mahim and Matunga Road were targeted.
After the arrest of 22 Indian Mujahideen operatives by the Mumbai crime branch in September 2008, soon there were claims that the ATS had falsely implicated some people. Mohammed Sadiq Israr Sheikh, the co-founder of Indian Mujahideen claimed it was he who carried out the train bombings and not the men being tried in the Mumbai court. Sadiq later retracted his statement saying it was made under duress.
In the course of the trial, call data records (CDRs) produced before the special MCOCA court indicated that phones belonging to three men accused of planting bombs on Virar-bound trains at Churchgate were in fact, nowhere near the station on that day.
The investigating agency, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had questioned as many as 200 witnesses against 13 accused.
The names of the 13 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 Hussain and Abdul Shaikh.
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