More than 19 years after the Mumbai train bombings on July 11, 2006, the Bombay High Court is scheduled to pass the judgement on 11 appeals filed by the state as well as the convicts in the case on Monday.

On July 11, 2006, major explosions at seven locations on Mumbai’s suburban rail network in a span of 11 minutes claimed 189 lives and injured 827 commuters.

While 13 accused were arrested, 15 others were declared wanted, some allegedly in Pakistan. The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), filing the chargesheet in November 2006.

In 2015, the trial court convicted 12 accused, five of whom were sentenced to death, while the remaining seven were sentenced to life imprisonment.

As per the law, the state government then filed a petition in the High Court seeking confirmation of the death sentences. The accused also filed appeals challenging their convictions and sentences.

While the state had filed for confirmation of death sentences in 2015, the appeals were filed between 2019 and 2023.

In spite of the appeals being filed, they remained unheard of for a long time as the evidence was voluminous and one division bench of the High Court had to dedicatedly hear only this case.

Thus, the appeals came up before many benches but could not be heard. Finally, one of the convicts in the case, Ehtesham siddiqui, filed a plea seeking expeditious hearing of the appeal.

Following that, a special bench was constituted which heard the appeals for almost six months and wrote the judgements for the last six months.

– Ends