A special MCOCA court here will deliver the final verdict in the July 11, 2006, > serial train blasts case on Friday.
Seven powerful explosions ripped through the first-class compartments of >Mumbai local trains between Churchgate and Bhayander in 11 minutes, killing 189 people and injuring 800 others. Thirteen SIMI activists were arrested by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad and charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
However, later investigations by the Crime Branch, found the involvement of the Indian Mujahideen, led by Yasin Bhatkal.
In November 2006, the ATS filed a 10,667-page charge sheet, identifying Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Pakistan-based leader Azeem Cheema as the key conspirator. According to the charge sheet, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) kept in household utensils were used to trigger the blasts. Many reports pointed to discrepancies in the versions of the investigators, who had earlier said pressure cookers were used, but did not say so in the charge sheet.
In April 2007, the ATS filed a supplementary charge sheet consisting of material gathered from brain-mapping tests.
“There are 192 prosecution witnesses, 51 defence witnesses and one court witness. The case rests on the testimonies of eyewitnesses and nine-ten confession statements under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The accused have also submitted call data records (CDRs) which are part of the evidence,” special public prosecutor Raja Thakare told The Hindu .
The ATS has not relied upon the CDRs and told the Bombay High Court in 2012 that they were destroyed.
In February 2008, the Supreme Court stayed the trial after one of the >accused challenged the constitutional validit y of one of the Sections of the MCOCA, essentially an Act for organised crime, applied in the case. The stay was vacated in April 2010.
