The Bombay High Court today allowed all the 13 accused in the July 2006 suburban trains blasts case to examine Deputy Commissioner of Police Kisan Shengal as defence witness in the trial.
The plea was allowed by Justice Sadhana Jadhav who observed that it would be fair and just to allow the accused to examine the witness to defend themselves.
The deadly blasts in seven first class compartments of Mumbai's local trains during the evening of July 11, 2006, killed 185 persons and injured more than 400 others.
The accused pleaded that DCP Kisan Senghal had recorded confessions of accused in another case involving Indian Mujahideen (IM) in which they had said that all the blasts which occurred after 2005 had been engineered by the terror outfit.
In that case, the accused said, the 7/11 blasts must have been executed by IM and they were not involved. In this regard, they wanted to examine DCP Shengal to know from him what the IM accused had told him in their confession.
The prosecution, however, opposed their plea saying these are delaying tactics.
The 13 accused in the 7/11 case are Kamal Ahamed Ansari, Dr Tanvir Ahmed Ansari, Mohd Faisal Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Mohammad Majid Shafi, Shaikh alam Shaikh, Mohd Sajid Ansari, Abdul Wahid Shaikh, Muzzammil Shaikh, Soheil Mehmood Shaikh, Zamir Ahmad Shaikh, Naveed Hussain Khan and Asif Khan Junaid.
Out of a total of 28 accused in this case, 15 accused are believed to have fled to Pakistan.
The accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, MCOCA, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Explosives Act, Explosive Substances Act, Railway Act, Passport Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.