Supreme Court stays HC verdict acquitting 12 in 2006 Mumbai train blasts case

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Bombay High Court order on Monday acquitting 12 persons accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, Live Law reported.

The persons who had been released from prison following the acquittal will not be required to go back to jail while the matter is being heard, the court said.

This came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Maharashtra government, told the bench of Justice MM Sundresh and NK Singh that he was not seeking directions for the persons accused in the matter to surrender, Live Law reported.

On Monday, the High Court acquitted 12 men in the case, holding that the prosecution had “utterly failed” in establishing their guilt. This came nearly 10 years after a special court had sentenced five of them to death and others to life imprisonment.

The Maharashtra government had challenged the acquittal on Tuesday.

The case pertains to the seven bomb blasts in suburban trains on Mumbai’s Western Railway line on July 11, 2006, killing 189 persons and injuring 824.

Following a trial under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, a special court had in October 2015 convicted the 12 persons.

The five persons who had been sentenced to death by the trial court are Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan and...

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