7/11 train blasts: Maharashtra govt to challenge acquittal of 12 accused in Supreme Court
Maharashtra government
will challenge the acquittal of 12 accused in the 7/11
Mumbai train bomb blasts case
by the
Bombay High Court
in the
Supreme Court
, Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis
said on Monday.
He described the high court verdict as shocking.
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"I will go through the entire order. I have discussed with the lawyers, and the high court verdict will be challenged in the Supreme Court," he told reporters.
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Nineteen years after seven train blasts here killed more than 180 persons, the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 accused, saying the prosecution utterly failed to prove the case and it was "hard to believe the accused committed the crime".
The court allowed the appeals filed by the accused challenging their conviction and sentences imposed on them by a special court in 2015.
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A special bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said the prosecution has failed to even bring on record the type of bombs used in the crime, and that the evidence relied on by it was not conclusive to convict the accused.
The bench refused to confirm the death penalties imposed on five of the 12 accused and dismissed the confirmation appeals filed by the Maharashtra government.
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The status of the SIR exercise reported in the ECI's affidavit contains data till July 18, 2025. The updated status provided by the ECI's press note on July 22 is reproduced in Table 1. Till then, around 21.35 lakh (2.7%) electors were yet to receive and submit their enumeration forms. Major political parties of Bihar were officially requested by the ECI to connect with the remaining electors, through their functionaries and booth level agents. Till July 24, around 7 lakh forms were not received. Inability of the ECI in ensuring cent percent coverage through its own machinery of booth level officers (BLOs) and volunteers further exposes the impracticality of the SIR schedule. Moreover, over 53 lakh (6.7%) electors were not found at their residential addresses by the BLOs. 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The ECI's affidavit states that statutorily 'Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship', which is specious logic, because statutorily the ECI has no mandate to conduct a citizenship test. In the case of ration cards, the ECI has cited 'widespread existence of fake ration cards' as the ground for non-acceptance. A data table in ECI's affidavit on the coverage of some of the eleven eligibility documents for SIR 2025 in Bihar show 13.89 crore 'Residence certificates' and 8.72 crore caste certificates issued from 2011 to 2025, far exceeding the total number of electors in the electoral rolls. If residence certificates can be accepted as eligibility proof of SIR 2025, despite their total number exceeding Bihar's current aggregate population, how can ration cards be rejected as a document on the grounds of being forgery-prone? Any widely accessible official card or document in a vast country like India with millions of poor and illiterate citizens would be prone to counterfeits — currency notes offering the most common example. Solutions need to be found in plugging systemic loopholes, enhanced vigilance and effectively designed counter-measures. Unless the ECI revises its rigid insistence on citizenship determination, the Bihar SIR exercise is likely to result in a fiasco bigger than the four-year-long NRC process in Assam between 2015 and 2019, which was eventually rejected by all those who demanded it after reportedly spending ₹1,600 crore of public money. (Prasenjit Bose is an economist and activist)
