The 7/11 blasts as the incident came to be known, preceded by over two years the deadly 26/11 (2008) blasts in south Mumbai, a deadly terror attack that targeted civilians at numerous sites in the southern part of Mumbai, including the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, the popular Leopold Café, two hospitals, and a theatre. While the initial spate of attacks ended within a few hours after they were launched around 9.30 p.m. on November 26, the terror kept unfolding at three locations where hostages were taken—the Nariman House (location of a Jewish outreach centre) the Oberoi Trident and Taj Mahal Palace & Towers five star hotels. Totally, at least 174 people, including 20 security force personnel and 26 foreign nationals, were killed. More than 300 people were injured. Nine of the 10 terrorists were killed, and one was arrested. 

The coordinated 7/11 train blasts in fact preceded the 26/11 multiple terror attacks on Mumbai. 

On July 18, 2024, 19 years down, the Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 men who had been wrongfully convicted in connection with the blasts, after having spent years in prison. The Court cited fabricated confessions, coerced evidence, unreliable witnesses, and procedural lapses so grave they amounted to a collapse of justice itself. Worse, these men were brutally tortured by squads of the police, treatment that is entrenched in a criminal justice system that shows communal and caste bias. Even as the innocent incarcerated walk free, acquitted by the High Court, after nearly two decade long incarcerations which in itself came with a cost, the families of the victims remain ensnared in the pain of loss—now coupled with the gnawing knowledge that the real perpetrators were never pursued with integrity or seriousness. An absence of closure that does not allow the real healing.

A verdict that reopened old wounds

“We waited for justice for 19 years,” said Yashwant Bhalerao, father of 23-year-old Harshal Bhalerao, who died in the blast on his first day of work at Ibex Software in Andheri, as reported by Free Press Journal. “When the police arrested the accused, they fought among themselves for credit. I realised then they had no real evidence,” the report provided.

Bhalerao’s frustration was echoed by other survivors and bereaved families. Saguna Bhalerao, Harshal’s mother, was in tears as she recalled the day: “I prayed he wouldn’t be on that train. His phone wasn’t ringing. But what happened was not what I prayed for. My son will never return, but the terrorists should have been punished.”

A State more eager for rushed processes than either closure or the truth

The Bombay High Court’s 671-page judgment offered an unflinching indictment of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which had investigated the case. It found that the prosecution relied on scripted confessions extracted under duress, unsupported forensic claims, and call records that were misrepresented or inconclusive.

As Justices Anil Kilor and S.C. Chandak noted, the investigation was marred by “serious infirmities,” making the convictions legally unsustainable. No eyewitnesses could place any of the accused at the blast sites. Alleged bomb-making materials were recovered without proper documentation or witnesses. As per the judgment, one witness had even testified in an unrelated blast case, calling into question the neutrality of key testimonies.

Grief meets disbelief

Anita Srivastava, whose husband Abhinav died in the blasts, now works at Malad station as a railway announcer. She was offered the job on compassionate grounds. Speaking to Hindustan Times, she said: “If those who were given the death sentence didn’t do it, why were they in jail for so long?”

Rajesh Parekh, whose father Mahendra survived with lifelong hearing damage, expressed rage at the state’s abdication of responsibility. “It has been proven again today that there is no justice in the country,” he said. “I’m moving my family abroad.”

Ameet Shrawagi, a chartered accountant who lost his father Mohan in the Bandra explosion, said the verdict was a “mockery of the justice system.” He added, as per the HT report, that “The trial court sentenced five to death and seven to life. A decade later, the High Court lets them all go free. It’s just unbelievable.”

Justice delayed, justice denied

The police and prosecution’s eagerness to close the case with a string of hasty arrests, led to a focus on vulnerable Muslim men from impoverished backgrounds, from all over India, based largely on custodial confessions. Defence lawyers and human rights groups had flagged these concerns for years.

According to LiveLaw, senior advocate Dr. S. Muralidhar, who represented two of the acquitted, said during arguments: “In such cases where there is a public outcry, the approach by police is always to first assume guilt and then go from there. Investigating agencies have failed us miserably.”

Despite these early warnings, the Special MCOCA Court in 2015 sentenced five to death and seven to life imprisonment. Only now has the High Court reversed that, but it is a cold comfort to victims who watched nearly two decades pass by with no real accountability.

A House Named After a Martyr, a Justice System That Forgot Him

Harshal Bhalerao’s parents named their new home “7/11 Harshal Smriti,” believed to be the only such memorial to a blast victim. The name stands as a personal tribute—but also a haunting reminder that their son died without the State ever seriously pursuing his killers. His father, an Income Tax officer, shared with Free Press Journal how July 11 was Harshal’s first day at his job. “I told his boss not to go easy on him just because he was my son. That was the last thing I ever said about him.”

Conclusion: A justice system adrift

The acquittal of all 12 accused has raised profound questions about India’s approach to terror investigations. When the State closes a case not with evidence but expediency, it compounds the crime: first, by failing to prevent violence; next, by misidentifying perpetrators; and finally, by denying the victims and their families the dignity of truth.

What remains is a chilling silence. No fresh investigation has been announced. Rather, the acquittal by the Bombay High Court was challenged in the Supreme Court, within one day of the judgment being delivered, surely not a reasoned or studied decision. The ATS, discredited yet unaccountable, continues as if nothing has happened. Meanwhile, the real masterminds behind one of India’s deadliest terror attacks still walk free.

Related:

A Spectacle of Injustice Undone: After 19 years, Bombay HC’s acquittal in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts case recognises the (mis) use of ‘torture for confession’

No innocent should ever be jailed, my life is dedicated to get other innocents released: Abdul Wahid Shaikh

2008 Jaipur blasts: Rajasthan HC acquits all four who were given death penalty

Malegaon blast case: Court rejects Pragya’s plea seeking exemption from appearing for trail

After 23 years in Prison on false charges, five Men walk out free in Samleti Blast case

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A court in Muzaffarnagar has acquitted 12 persons charged in separate cases of robbery and arson during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, reported Indian Express. The acquittals have been made owing to lack of evidence or discrepancies in prosecution witness statements. Over 60 people dwere killed and around 40,000 were displaced during the violence.

District Government Counsel (Muzaffarnagar) Rajeev Sharma told IE that so far trials have been competed in 20 cases out of which only one case has ended in conviction while rest others have been acquitted. The one case of conviction was where two boys Sachin and Gaurav were murdered in Kawal village, which had triggered the riots in the first place.

The current acquittals are in relation to two cases, related to setting the house of a local Imam on fire and looting valuables from there. The Imam had shifted to Budhana after the riots broke out and he came to know later that a mob broke open his house and took away valuables and then set the house on fire. Thereafter a chargesheet was filed against the six accused – Krishna, Mintu, Narendra, Kala Ganja alias Vijay Malik, Virendra alias Bindu and Manoj, all residents of Kharad village but the court acquitted them for lack of evidence.

The other case was of dacoity and arson by setting many houses on fire at Tagpur village, Shamli but the accused – Umesh, Devendra, Pintu, Lalit Kumar, Vinod, Arvind – who were already out on bail were acquitted due to “differences” in statements of five prosecution witnesses, reported IE.

Last week a Muzaffarnagar court allowed withdrawal of cases against BJP leaders like Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Rana, MLA Sangit Som, former MP Bhartendu Singh and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Sadhvi Prachi, who were booked for violating prohibitory orders, deterring public servants from discharging their duties, wrongful restraint and for making inciteful speeches that led to the riots. The application made by the Yogi Adityanath led UP government filed the application stating that it has been decided to not proceed with the cases against the BJP leaders in public interest.

In early March, a Muzaffarnagar court accepted the closure report filed by Special Investigation Team (SIT) with respect to BJP MLA Sangeet Som’s controversial statement with respect to an inflammatory video ahead of the communal riots in the area, in 2013.

Related:

UP govt withdraws cases against BJP leaders accused in 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots
Muzaffarnagar riots: Case closed against BJP MLA accused of circulating inflammatory video
Bhainsa communal riots triggered by Hindu Vahini: IGP Nagi Reddy
Delhi violence: Court questions credibility of police witness, grants bail to accused

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A special court has acquitted former Union Minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand alias Krishna Pal Singh, accused of prolonged sexual exploitation of a 23-year-old law student, reported LiveLaw.

Special Judge P K Rai said that the prosecution could not prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, and hence acquitted him of all charges. The court also reportedly noted that the survivor complainant had turned hostile during the pendency of the trial.

The law student was pursuing LLM in a college run by Chinmayanand’s ashram and was living in the hostel when she accused the BJP MP of rape. She had alleged that Chinmayanand sexually exploited her for a year after helping her with admission into his college. He allegedly filmed her taking a bath and blackmailed her with the video and raped her. The woman said that she was raped repeatedly for a year by him and she was also brought to his room at gunpoint and forced to give him massages.

The case against Chinmayanand was lodged at Kotwali police station in Shahjahanpur on August 27, 2019 on a complaint of the survivor’s father, who had said that her mobile phone was switched off since August 23, adding that he found through her Facebook account that she had been threatened by Chinmayanand and his accomplices of her physical harassment and rape, besides dire consequences, reported LiveLaw.

On September 20, he was arrested and remanded to judicial custody for stalking, criminal intimidation, wrongful confinement and sexual intercourse under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Early in 2020, the Allahabad High Court granted him bail raising questions over the survivor’s silence over the alleged incident. Justice Rahul Chaturvedi, as reported by SabrangIndia, said, “A girl, whose virginity is at stake, not uttering a single word to her own parent or before the Court regarding the alleged incident, is an astonishing conduct which speak volumes about the ingeniousness of the prosecution story.”

The judgment also said, “It is also noticeable that there is also nothing on record that during the period of the alleged atrocities committed upon Miss “A” she made any complaint or even any whisper to her family members against the accused applicant, therefore, at this juncture, this Court draws its conclusion that it was a complete matter of quid pro quo but over a span of time the greed for extracting “more”, she along with her accomplices seems to have advanced for hatching a conspiracy against the applicant and tried to black mail him for ransom, through the obscene video clips recorded by herself.”

The order delivered in February last year also made some rather odd remarks about the survivor’s father saying, “It appears from the text of the FIR, lodged by father that there was no direct contact between the daughter and her father. The relationship between father and the daughter seems to be quite strange as they were having no direct contacts and were alien to each other and the father was taking stock of the situation of his daughter through her Facebook account.”

Advocate Om Singh had lodged an FIR on August 25, 2019 at Kotwali station against the law student and her friends, allegedly for demanding Rs. 5 crores as extortion from Chinmayanand but the court acquitted them based on lack of evidence and hostile witnesses, as per LiveLaw.

(To be updated with order)

Related:

Chinmayanand granted bail, did judge shame survivor?
Former Union Min. Chinmayanand accused Of Rape by UP Law Student, Arrested

The post Witnesses turn hostile, rape accused BJP MP Chinmayanand acquitted appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Social Activists Nikhil Dey, Naurti Bai, Ram Karan, and Chotu Lal are acquitted in the RTI case in Harmara following a conviction of trespass and causing hurt .

Image: Tehelka

The post Acquitted After Conviction: RTI Activists Nikil Dev, Naurti Bai & Others appeared first on SabrangIndia.