During the final arguments in the July 11, 2006 serial blasts case in Mumbai, the defence counsel argued on Tuesday that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has tried to suppress the Call Data Record (CDR) all the while because it contradicts the confessions retracted from the accused.
13 persons were arrested by the ATS in this case. The defence argued on Tuesday that the case built up by the prosecution has relied prominently on the confessions. If those are disbelieved, there is no other evidence against the accused, defence counsel Wahad Khan argued. He analysed the CDR in detail, and claimed that the prosecution had been creating obstacles to ensure that the accused could not access the copies of the records.
“The ATS said earlier that they were not relying on the CDR for their case. Then, when we still tried to get copies of the CDR, they claimed privilege,” Mr. Khan said. The defence referred to their case when they had to approach the Bombay High Court to get a copy of the CDR. It was on the court’s order that the record was made available to the accused. He said the CDR pointed out the contradiction in the ATS narrative about the case. The CDR showed that on July 8, 9, and 10 in 2006, the accused were not in Govandi for making bombs, as claimed by the ATS. Also, it contradicted the confessions on the date and time of the presence of accused on the day of the blasts. The defence claimed that due to all these contradictions, the prosecution was not willing to produce the CDR.
The serial train bomb blasts had killed more than 180 people and had injured over 700. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) investigated the case and arrested 13 persons in the matter. But later, Mumbai Crime Branch arrested 21 persons belonging to the banned organisation Indian Mujahideen in 2008, who had claimed responsibility of various bomb blasts in the country from 2005 to 2008. Those blasts included the 7/11 strike as well. The trial in this case had thus been controversial since beginning.
