The Hindu : Front Page : All acquitted in Ghatkopar bus blasts case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 12, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

All acquitted in Ghatkopar bus blasts case

Special Correspondent

First judgment in POTA case in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: Special POTA judge Mr. Ashok P Bhangale on Saturday acquitted all the eight accused in the Ghatkopar bus blasts case. They were charged with "criminal conspiracy and striking terror" by planting bombs in a bus at Ghatkopar in northeast Mumbai on December 2, 2002, as the prosecution had failed to provide evidence against them. Two persons were killed and 49 injured in the explosion.

This is the first judgment in a POTA case in Maharashtra, preceding even the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case where the accused were arrested and tried under TADA. That order is still awaited.

In Maharashtra, POTA was applied for the first time in the Ghatkopar blasts case. The POTA court acquitted Dr. Mohammed Abdul Matin, Muzammil Jamil Ahmed, Imran Rehman Khan, Mohammed Altaf, Toufiq Hamid, Aarif Panwala, Rashid Ansari and Haroon Rashid Lohar of all charges.

Khwaja Yunus, who was among those arrested in the case, disappeared from police custody in January 2003. Though the Mumbai police maintained that he was absconding, his family filed a case alleging he was killed in police custody. The High Court had directed that a statement by co-accused Dr. Abdul Matin be treated as the First Information Report.

Dr. Matin had stated that he had seen Yunus being beaten up by the police and vomiting blood. The investigation was handed over to the State CID. Thereafter, eight policemen were arrested and later released on bail, while 29 others applied for anticipatory bail.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page