Rush Hour: All accused in 2006 Mumbai blasts acquitted, Kerala ex-CM VS Achuthanandan dies, & more

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The Bombay High Court has acquitted all 12 persons accused of having carried out seven blasts in suburban trains in the city on July 11, 2006. This came nearly 10 years after a special court had sentenced five of them to death and others to life imprisonment.

The court said that the prosecution had “utterly failed” to establish the guilt of the accused persons. It remarked that while punishing the perpetrators of a crime is an essential step, creating a “false appearance of having solved a case” would lead to a misleading sense of resolution.

The five persons who had been sentenced to death by the trial court are Kamal Ansari, Mohammad Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan and Asif Khan. All had been held guilty of planting the bombs.

The seven others who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court are Tanveer Ahmed Ansari, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam, Mohammed Sajid Margub Ansari, Muzzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh, Suhail Mehmood Shaikh and Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Shaikh. More on Scroll.

Former Kerala Chief Minister and veteran communist...

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