Ehtesham Siddiqui and Faisal Shaikh, who are on the death row for their involvement in the serial blasts in Mumbai’s local trains have been brought to Mumbai’s high security Arthur road jail so that they can attend trial in other cases registered against them.
Convict Siddiqui is also facing trial in the Aurangabad arms haul case while the other convict Shaikh is facing a case under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Both of these persons were convicted and awarded death sentence for their role in Mumbai’s local train blasts case and were shifted to Nagpur and Pune’s Yerwada jail.
Currently, the final arguments are going on in Aurangabad arms haul case but Siddiqui was in Nagpur jail so he could not attend the court proceedings. On this advocate Sharif Shaikh, on behalf of Jamiat-e-Ulema Maharashtra, requested the court to direct authorities to bring Siddiqui to Arthur road jail so that he could attend the special MCOCA court and hear the final arguments. A similar application was made for Shaikh, who is also facing another trial under UAPA.
The concerned court accepted these applications and issued direction to bring both of the accused to Mumbai. On court’s directions they have been brought to the city.
The blasts, which had sent shockwaves across the metro nine years ago, had ripped seven suburban trains within a span of 10 minutes between Khar Road-Santa Cruz, Bandra-Khar Road,Jogeshwari- Mahim Junction, Mira Road- Bhayander,Matunga-Mahim Junction and Borivali. RDX bombs had exploded in the first class coaches of local trains during evening peak hours. The blasts killed 189 people and left several hundred others injured.
The accused had contended that they were innocent and were falsely implicated in the case while judge Yatin D. Shinde had convicted 10 persons for causing the blasts. One of the accused was acquitted from all the charges while five, including Siddiqui and Shaikh were sentenced to death.
