HC acquittal verdict shocking, no witch hunt in probe: Ex-Mumbai top cop A N Roy on 7/11 case

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4 days ago

Roy headed the city police force when the blasts occurred on July 11, 2006, while the probe in the terror attack was handled by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
He said the police only chargesheeted the people who had a 'core role' in the blasts, and said there was no 'witch hunt' involved.
Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) Former Mumbai police commissioner A N Roy on Tuesday expressed shock over the the Bombay High Court's acquittal of all 12 accused in the 7/11 train blasts case, saying the probe in the case was conducted in a professional manner where evidence was collected 'honestly and truthfully'.
More than 180 people were killed when seven blasts ripped through Mumbai local trains at various locations on the western line. Nineteen years later, the Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted all 12 accused, saying the prosecution utterly failed to prove the case and that it was 'hard to believe the accused committed the crime'.
Talking to PTI, former Mumbai police chief Roy said, 'I am shocked to see the kind of judgment. But it is a judicial verdict, we accept it respectfully.' 'The relevant department, which is ATS, is studying the judgment. They will take legal opinion. I am sure they will file an appeal in the Supreme Court on that,' he said.
The Supreme Court will hear the Maharashtra government's plea against the high court verdict on July 24.
Roy reminded that the trial court had sided with the prosecution while giving the harshest sentences to the accused people and added that the apex court of the country will see merit in the case.
'We presented a very good, strong case to the court through the chargesheet,' Roy said, asserting that it was a professionally conducted, thorough investigation where evidence was collected 'honestly and truthfully'.
Maintaining that he has not read the judgment delivered on Monday, he said the high court seems to be apprehensive on how witnesses could identify the accused after 100 days and questioned if there was any prescribed procedure that explicitly disallows such a practice.
'There are a number of cases on judicial records where the witnesses have identified the accused after 10 years in the court,' Roy said.
Speaking about the delay in the trial, he said the trial went on for several years because the accused kept on moving applications across the legal system and also went up till the Supreme Court for seeking bail or some 'frivolous issues'.
They also made allegations of torture, of getting beaten up and forced to confess which consumed time, Roy said, adding that none of these allegations were accepted in the court.
Reminiscing about the investigation into the case, the former top cop said officers worked overnight to build the case, after which the trial began.
According to the police, members of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and other brainwashed youth conspired to bomb the local trains, called as the lifeline of the financial capital, during the peak hour. Bombs assembled inside pressure cookers were put on first-class compartments of the trains.
Investigators had claimed that the bombers had travelled with the bombs to south Mumbai's Churchgate after assembling them in distant suburbs, and alighted at railway stations before the timers went off.
Roy said, 'We did not do any witch hunt. We only chargesheeted the people who had the core role in the blast.' 'I retired from the service 16 years ago, I was not closely monitoring the court hearings. But I was the police commissioner when the bomb blast happened. I was very closely supervising the investigation and I own up whatever was done in the investigation,' he said on the HC judgement.
'I have accorded the sanction for prosecution under the MCOC Act to all the accused. I stood in the court for 5 days to prove my sanction. Now, after completing the investigation very professionally, very thoroughly, after collecting all the evidence possible to collect, truthfully, honestly presented a very good, strong case to the court through the chargesheet,' he said.
Roy said the court took a long time to pronounce the judgment because it was a very voluminous chargesheet, and added that the trial court judgment alone went into 2,000 pages.
Every single person's evidence was mentioned there in detail. The evidence brought in by the prosecution side, the cross examination by all the 9 to 10 defence lawyers for every witness is all recorded in that 2,000-page judgement of the trial court, he said.
'All the eyewitnesses, all the witnesses who identified the accused, all the recoveries which were made, all other circumstantial evidence, all of that is mentioned in great detail in that 2,000 page judgement. The police officers who were investigated or played any other role during that – they were all examined and cross-examined,' he said.
'I withstood cross examination for 5 days, morning till evening,' the former police commissioner added.
The judgement seems to mention only what the defence lawyers have argued in the high court and saying yes or no to that, Roy said, adding that he found it bizarre.
'We will have to wait for the next verdict. We have got from the trial court's full verdict in our favour. For whatever reason, if the high court has given a contradictory verdict, we accept that as well,' he said.
'We'll go and appeal to the higher court to wait for the final judgement to come. We are very confident that we have a very good case,' he said, adding that they will wait for the final judgement from the Supreme Court. PTI DC NP
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