Mumbai 7/11 blasts: How the prosecution's pressure cooker theory blew up in court

Indian Express

5 days ago

The prosecution in the July 11, 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts case had relied on a key finding in the Maharashtra police's investigation – that the bombs that ripped through the train coaches were packed in pressure cookers that the accused allegedly placed on the luggage racks.
While acquitting the 12 accused on July 21, the Bombay High Court, however, raised doubts over the reliability of accounts of certain witnesses who claimed to have seen some of the accused placing 'black rexine bags' with the bomb-filled pressure cookers.
Police claimed that during their investigation, one of the accused led them to a marshy location near the tracks on Mira Road from where they recovered 'a brown plastic bag in mud, containing several items, including 7 rubber gaskets, 5 whistles, broken electric wires…' They also seized a five-litre 'Kanchan' brand pressure cooker from the house of another accused, Faisal Ataur Rahman Sheikh. Further, an eye witness, shopkeeper Mohanlal Kumawat, claimed that 'some Kashmiri-looking persons purchased eight cookers' from him in May 2006. The police then went on to join these dots to allege that pressure cookers were used in the blasts.
However, the court records that a forensic report indicated that the rubber gaskets and whistles recovered from the spot were 'duplicates, as they did not match the original products from the Kanchan company in terms of markings and physical characteristics'.
The bench of Justices Anil S Kilor and Shyam C Chandak said that to examine the Anti-Terrorism Squad's theory, the court needed to ascertain the possible size of the bags allegedly containing the pressure cookers – and whether it would be big enough to attract the witnesses' attention.
The court noted that the 'typical dimensions of a five-litre pressure cooker, irrespective of manufacturer, is approximately 41 centimetres in width and 20 cm in height (16.14 x 7.87 inches).' Comparing this to an A4-size sheet, the court said that the 'bag required to put a 5-litre cooker loaded with a bomb will be of a normal size and not an abnormal one that would attract anybody's attention, including that of Prosecution Witness, one Subhash Kamlakar Nagarsekar, and give cue for triggering memory.'
The court also said that while the statement of shopkeeper Kumawat is 'relevant for the prosecution's story that the bombs were packed in cookers by the accused', he was not examined or called for Test Identification Parade (TIP). The court notes that five other witnesses who claimed to have seen the 'suspected passengers planting bombs' on the trains were also not examined or called for TIP.
Instead, on November 2, 2006, over a 100 days after the blast, the ATS called taxi drivers Santosh Kedar Singh and Rajesh Satpute, who said they transported two accused Asif Khan Bashir Khan and Mohd. Faisal Ataur Rahman Shaikh, respectively, to Churchgate station – a delay that the court took note of.
The HC said that one of the taxi drivers 'did not give any special reason' for remembering the face of the accused even after about 100 days since 'there is hardly any chance for any taxi driver to have long interaction and to have sufficient and ample opportunity to notice and observe the passengers and their faces, unless there is some special reason.'
The court went on to point out how in Mumbai, passengers and taxi drivers have minimal interaction and that 'there is no opportunity or practice of bargaining, as the fare is calculated strictly in accordance with the fare meter installed in the taxi'.
The court notes that taxi driver Santosh Kedar Singh had during his cross-examination admitted that it was difficult to 'remember a passenger after a week and it becomes more difficult after a month.'