Nineteen years after multiple train blasts here killed more than 180 persons, the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all the 12 accused, saying the prosecution utterly failed to prove the case and it was “hard to believe they committed the crime”.
The judgement comes as a major embarrassment to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) which conducted the probe into the case.
A special Bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said the prosecution has failed to even bring on record the type of bombs used in the crime and that the evidence relied on by it was not conclusive to convict the accused persons.
The witness statements and alleged recoveries made from the accused have no evidentiary value, the HC said while quashing the conviction of the 12 persons, of whom five had been sentenced to death and seven to life imprisonment by a special court.
Seven blasts ripped through Mumbai local trains at various locations on the western line on July 11, 2006, killing more than 180 persons and injuring several others.
