Abdul Wahid Shaikh, acquitted in 2015 after nine years in jail for the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, has called for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by a High Court judge to re-investigate the case, following the Bombay High Court’s acquittal of all 12 accused on July 21. The court, citing a “shoddy” prosecution, ruled that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) failed to prove the case, describing it as “hard to believe” the accused committed the crime.

The July 11, 2006, blasts, which killed 189 people and injured over 800, targeted first-class compartments on Mumbai’s Western Railway. In 2015, a special MCOCA court sentenced five men—Kamal Ahmed Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan, and Asif Khan—to death, and seven others to life imprisonment. Ansari died in 2021. Shaikh, a teacher, was the only one acquitted in 2015, having endured alleged torture, which he detailed in his book Begunah Qaidi.

Shaikh alleges the ATS fabricated evidence and tortured the accused to extract confessions, claims echoed by the High Court, which dismissed witness testimonies and confessions as unreliable. He demands an ATS apology, Rs 19 crore in compensation for the 12 men who spent 19 years in prison, and government jobs and housing for them. He also seeks justice for the victims’ families, emphasizing the need to catch the real perpetrators.

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Shaikh highlighted the case of Assistant Commissioner of Police Vinod Bhat, who, he claims, died by suicide in August 2006 under pressure to frame innocents, though officially recorded as an accidental death. The Maharashtra government, stunned by the verdict, has moved the Supreme Court, with a hearing set for July 24, arguing the investigation’s lapses must be addressed. BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam called the acquittal “shocking,” urging a robust appeal.

Families of the acquitted, like Suhail Shaikh’s brother Rahil, expressed relief, crediting the judiciary for overturning a “false case.” The ruling exposes systemic flaws in terror probes, with former Orissa HC Chief Justice S. Muralidhar arguing the accused and their families faced lasting stigma.

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