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Accused given time to seek transfer of case

MUMBAI: The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court hearing the July train blasts case on Tuesday granted the accused time till August 21 to resolve the issue of transfer of the case to another court.

Special judge Mrudula Bhatkar had adjourned the proceedings to Tuesday after she framed the charges against the accused on Monday, following protests in the open court. On Tuesday, acting on an appeal by the accused for transferring the case, she allowed them to seek an order from a competent court. Thirteen persons have been booked in the case on various charges under the MCOCA, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Railways Act, Explosives Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The accused, several of them members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India and some having links with the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, allegedly set off a series of explosions in crowded trains of the Western Railway, which killed nearly 200 people in a matter of minutes on July 11. Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai Police filed a 10,000-page charge sheet on November 30 2006. It claimed to have got confessions from the accused before filing the charge sheet. However, it subsequently withdrew this claim.

According to the charge sheet, 15 of the accused are absconding and 10 are Pakistanis. Of the 13 arrested, five had a role in planting the bombs. The charge sheet says two of the perpetrators died — the one whose body was found at the blasts site and one Abu Umaid, who was killed in a police encounter.

The 13 arrested in the case are Kamal Ansari, Tanvir Ansari, Faisal Sheikh, htesham Siddqui, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Shaikh, Sajid Ansari, Abdul Wahid Shaikh, Muzzamil Shaikh, Sohail Shaikh, Zameer Shaikh, Naved Hussain Khan and Asif Khan alias Junaid.

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