AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said the 12 Muslim men, after spending 18 years in jail for the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts, lost the prime years of their lives, while sharply urging the government to clarify whether it will take action against the Maharashtra ATS officers who investigated the case.
His comment comes after the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 Muslim men accused of orchestrating the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts that killed 189 people and injured over 800, observing that “the prosecution utterly failed in establishing the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“Twelve Muslim men were in jail for 18 years for a crime they didn’t commit, their prime life is gone, 180 families lost their loved ones, several were injured, and yet there is no closure for them,” said Owaisi, questioning, “Will the government take action against the officers of the Maharashtra ATS who investigated this case?”
He said that “innocent people are sent to jail and then years later, when they are released, there is no possibility for reconstruction of their lives,” adding that the accused had “not stepped out even for a day in the last 17 years,” and that “the majority of their prime life is gone.”
Owaisi questioned the approach of law enforcement in such high-profile cases, noting that “in cases where there is a public outcry, the police first assume guilt and then build a case around it.”
He criticised the spectacle created by authorities, stating that “police officers take press conferences in such cases, and the way the media covers the case, it kind of decides the guilt of a person before the court does.”
He also drew attention to a pattern of institutional failure, stating that “in many such terror cases, investigating agencies have failed us miserably.”
He also remarked, “Please remember which parties were ruling Maharashtra in 2006, they are also responsible for disregarding complaints of torture,” holding the then state leadership accountable for the prolonged injustice faced by the accused.
In 2006, Maharashtra was governed by a coalition government of the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Owaisi also took a dig at the “so-called nationalist” media, stating, “Of course, the 6 PM and 9 PM (so-called) nationalists who passed judgments on the guilt of the accused,” referring to prime-time news anchors and commentators who, he implied, played a significant role in shaping public perception and vilifying the 12 Muslim men long before a fair trial had taken place.
He noted that Mohammed Majid, one of the 12 men acquitted, lost his wife while in prison without even getting a chance for a final conversation with her.
Referring to the brothers Faisal and Muzammil, who were among those acquitted, Owaisi shared that their father died of a heart attack after hearing about the death and life sentences handed down to his sons, while their mother passed away in 2023.
These deeply personal losses, Owaisi stressed, reflect the irreversible human cost of wrongful imprisonment and failed investigations.
A special bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak, which heard the appeals filed by the State and the convicts over a span of six months, delivered its judgment on Monday, acquitting all 12 accused, bringing an end to their 18 years of languishing in jail.
The Bombay High Court found the testimonies of nearly all prosecution witnesses to be unreliable, noting that there was no plausible reason for taxi drivers or train passengers to remember the accused nearly 100 days after the blasts.
Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan, and Asif Khan were given the death penalty, alleging them of planting the bombs.
The others, Tanveer Ahmed, Mohammed Ibrahim Ansari, Mohammed Majid Mohammed Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh, and Zameer Ahmed Latiur Rehman Shaikh, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Tragically, Kamal Ahmad Ansari, one of the accused, passed away in 2021 due to COVID-19 while still incarcerated.
Another accused, Wahid Shaikh, was acquitted by the trial court itself after spending nine years in jail.
The appeals filed by both the State and the convicted men had been pending before the Bombay High Court since 2015.