Nineteen years after the devastating 2006 Mumbai train bombings, the Bombay High Court overturned the convictions of all 12 men previously sentenced for the attacks.
Nineteen years after a series of coordinated blasts ripped through Mumbai’s suburban railway network, claiming 187 lives and injuring over 800, the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 men previously convicted in the case. Notably, a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court had sentenced five of them to death and the remaining seven to life imprisonment in 2015.
“The prosecution has utterly failed to prove the case against the accued. It is hard to believe that the accused committed the crime. Hence, their conviction is quashed and set aside,” said the division bench of Justice Anil Kilor and Justice Shyam C Chandak.
The court also criticised the handling of key evidence, including the explosives and circuit boxes said to have been used to assemble the bombs.
