7/11 train bomb blasts case: Man acquitted in 2015 demands re-investigation through SIT

Mumbai: Abdul Wahid Shaikh, the sole person to be acquitted by the special court in 2015 in the Mumbai train bomb blasts case, on Tuesday demanded the formation of an SIT headed by a High Court judge to re-investigate the case.

Shaikh raised this demand a day after the Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 accused, noting that the prosecution had utterly failed to prove the case.

Nine years after he was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), the special court in 2015 cleared him of all charges related to the serial blasts case. The court had sentenced five of the 12 men to death and seven to life imprisonment. One of the death row convicts died in 2021.

On Monday, the high court released all 12, noting the prosecution utterly failed to prove the case and it was "hard to believe the accused committed the crime" Shaikh, who works as a teacher, has been vocal about the torture inflicted by the ATS on 12 persons. He had penned a book- 'Begunah Qaidi'- while he was behind bars.

The special bench of the HC also stated that the accused had been tortured to extort confessional statements.

"The government should re-investigate the case by setting up a Special Investigation Team to be headed by a High Court judge to ensure that the real perpetrators behind the train bomb blasts are arrested," Shaikh told PTI.

His other demands include an apology from the ATS for the botched investigation, Rs 19 crore in compensation to the 12 men who spent 19 years behind bars despite being innocent and government jobs and houses for them.

"Though very late, these people finally got justice. The HC verdict exposed the falsehood of ATS", he said.

Shaikh expressed sympathy and demanded justice for the family members of the victims killed and maimed in the synchronised blasts that 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.

He remembered the late Assistant Commissioner of Police Vinod Bhat, one of the investigating officers in the train bomb blast case.

In his book, Shaikh had claimed that Bhat was being forced to fabricate evidence and create false witnesses against the accused persons.

"Today, the soul of ACP Bhat must be happy. He ended his life in August 2006 due to pressure to frame innocent persons on the same railway track where bomb blasts had occurred," he claimed, adding that the suicide was recorded as accidental death at Dadar railway police station.