2006 Train Blasts: Maharashtra Slams HC’s RDX Evidence Rejection
State challenges acquittal of 12 in 2006 train bombings.
The Maharashtra government has urgently appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the Bombay High Court’s acquittal of all 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, which killed over 180 people. The state argues that the High Court wrongly dismissed critical evidence, including the recovery of 500 grams of RDX from one accused, on a “hyper-technical” basis that it lacked a lac seal, despite RDX’s flammable nature making sealing unsafe.
The appeal, filed a day after the High Court’s July 21 ruling, was presented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta before a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai, with a hearing scheduled for July 24. The state contends that the High Court ignored proper procedural safeguards under Section 23(2) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), including sanctions by senior officers like prosecution witness Anami Roy, and found no contradictions in the prosecution’s evidence.
Maharashtra’s plea challenges the High Court’s rejection of a confession, dismissed for lacking minor details like the arrival dates of alleged Pakistani co-conspirators, arguing that such omissions do not invalidate the statement. The state also disputes the dismissal of recovered detonators and explosive granules, emphasizing their evidentiary value.
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The High Court had quashed the 2015 special court convictions—five death sentences and seven life imprisonments—stating the prosecution “utterly failed” to prove guilt. The 2006 blasts, involving seven RDX-laden bombs in Mumbai’s suburban trains, remain one of India’s deadliest terror attacks.
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