‘Collective failure’ of govt, investigation team: 7/11 survivors after HC ruling
As the Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 accused in the 7/11 train bomb blasts case here, survivors of the horrific terror attack called the ruling a “collective failure” of the government and investigation team, and asserted the perpetrators must be punished at any cost.
They said the Maharashtra government should move the Supreme Court and challenge the acquittal, a step already taken by the state administration.
In a video interview hours after the HC verdict on Monday, Chirag Chauhan (40), a chartered accountant and one of the survivors of the 2006 bombings, described the acquittal ruling as a “collective failure of the government, investigation team and judicial team”. “I think the state government should go to the Supreme Court and demand fair justice or investigation. Those responsible (for the serial blasts) should be punished,” he insisted.
As a 21-year-old chartered accountancy student, Chauhan was travelling on a local train on the Western Railway when it was rocked by a powerful bomb blast between Khar and Santacruz stations on July 11, 2006.
He was paralysed due to spinal cord injury suffered in the terror attack and is now uses a wheelchair. Another survivor, Mahendra Pitale (52), a Western Railway employee, affirmed the government should explore all available legal options to ensure justice in the 19-year-old case. The survivor maintained he does not “agree” with the HC ruling and was also disappointed that the verdict came 19 years after the bombings.
Pitale, who was 33 years old when he lost his left hand in a train blast at Jogeshwari, called for bringing to justice all those who plotted and carried out the bomb blasts on the Western Railway’s suburban network that killed more than 180 people and left several others injured.
“I want the government to appoint a committee (to handle post-ruling matters) and appeal in the apex court. The accused should be punished as early as possible,” Pitale insisted.
Hansraj Kanojia, another survivor of the terror attack, opined he was very upset with the HC verdict and asserted that the real culprits should be tried and handed severe punishment.
Kanojia, who lost his right leg in the tragedy, said he was travelling in a general compartment of a suburban train when an explosion ripped through an adjacent first class coach at Jogeshwari.
Nineteen years after seven blasts ripped through Mumbai’s busy suburban trains during the evening rush hour, the HC acquitted all the 12 accused, saying the prosecution “utterly failed” to prove the case and it was “hard to believe the accused committed the crime”. Of the 12, five had been sentenced to death and seven to life imprisonment by the special court. One of the death row convicts died in 2021.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court said it will hear on July 24, the Maharashtra Government’s plea against the HC verdict acquitting all 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai train bomb blasts case.
A Bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria on Tuesday took note of the urgent mentioning of the state’s appeal against the HC’s July 21 verdict by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and said it will be listed for Thursday. — PTI
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