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Hindustan Times
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
How Mumbai police lost the plot on suburban rail blasts
The Mumbai suburban railway bombing, also known as the 7/11 blasts, took place on July 11, 2006. Unfortunately, it took place when we lacked an integrated approach to our intelligence coordination and terror crime investigation. The then Mumbai police commissioner told a security advisory group constituted by the Maharashtra government — of which I was a member — that he had never been given any indication in his meetings with the Intelligence Bureau at the highest level before the attack that the Mumbai suburban railway system was a target. In fact, it seemed that the central intelligence indicated that religious places would be targeted. The 7/11 attacks killed 189 passengers in different trains on the Western Railway in six minutes, compared to 26/11 attacks where the death toll during the 58-hour stand-off stood at 175. An American media report on July 21, 2006, said that the New York Police Department (NYPD) had sent an officer to Mumbai to study the 'simplicity and lethality' of 7/11 attacks, which 'were the equivalent of bombing seven commuter stations between Manhattan and Westchester'. NYPD wanted to understand how the Mumbai suburban attacks were executed with such precision. Post the Twin Tower attacks on September 11, 2001 (9/11), the March 11, 2004, attacks on the commuter railway system in Madrid, and the July 7 London tube bombings, the NYPD had augmented its security network. Therefore, the Mumbai bombings were of interest to it to see what gaps remained. The 7/11 attackers had carried bombs in backpacks common locally, hid these in overhead racks near the exits to enable them to exit the train quickly, and had used timing devices to cause the explosions within 11 minutes to cause the maximum panic, shock, and damage. In sharp contrast, the local investigation into this case was marked by total incompetence, lack of coordination, and confusion. In 2009, I had written in Routledge's annual publication, India's National Security-Annual Review, that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which originally investigated this case, had charge-sheeted 13 people for 7/11, including four who had undergone training in Pakistan. However, in September 2008, the Mumbai City Crime Branch made a startling claim in a press conference, that they had found evidence of the involvement of Sadiq Shaikh, co-founder of Indian Mujahideen (IM), in these blasts. This claim was fundamentally challenged on May 11, 2009, when the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court discharged Shaikh, finding no evidence against him. Even earlier, the ATS and Mumbai crime branch had publicly differed on many points, with the latter claiming that the bombs for the blasts were assembled in a flat in Sewree and the RDX was procured by IM leader Riyaz Bhatkal even as ATS said that the bombs were assembled in Govandi and RDX was procured by a Pakistani terrorist, Ehsanullah, who had entered India illegally along with 10 accomplices. All this would not have happened had the then Union government set up a central anti-terror agency. Unfortunately, they waited until December 2008 to set up such an agency (the National Investigation Agency, or NIA), after the 26/11 attacks. In September 2015, a special MCOCA court sentenced 12 accused persons, awarding capital punishment to five and life imprisonment to seven for planting the bombs and killing passengers. It is this sentence that was set aside by the Bombay High Court on July 21, 2025 — all 12 convicted by the MCOCA court were acquitted. The special bench had heard the case for the last six months, including appeals by the State and by the convicts. However, an inkling on the course the case would eventually take was available in January this year, from the defence put up by S Muralidhar, former chief justice of the Odisha High Court and now senior advocate, who represented two accused sentenced to life imprisonment. This was reported only in legal journals and not in the mainstream media. Muralidhar had then highlighted the lapses in investigation, especially in obtaining confessional statements of the accused under a special provision of MCOCA, given that the officer who had recorded the confessional statement failed to identify the accused. Muralidhar had told the court: 'This is a very serious legal flaw of the trial court. Thus, this Court should now discard these statements'. He also said that the family and relatives of the accused were tortured physically, just like the accused persons. The HC acquittal on July 21 highlights several lapses like 'cut and paste' confessions made by all the accused persons, custodial torture before the confessions were recorded, and more particularly 'the lack of any reliable material submitted' to grant prior approval to invoke the stringent MCOCA, under which confessions are legally admissible. The Court found no material was provided to the competent authority 'except reproduction of some expressions used in the definition of organised crime'. The court said after examining two confessions recorded on two different dates: 'By any stretch of imagination, it is highly impossible to have the same questions and its sequence in both the statements with the same answers'. This is quite telling of how poorly the investigation was handled by the police, leaving the families of the victims of the blasts and the accused and their families struggling for justice. Law enforcement agencies have a lot to answer. Vappala Balachandran is a former special secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, and was part of the two-member High Level Committee that enquired into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The views expressed are personal.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
In Mumbai train blasts case, many questions: LeT or IM, household utensils or pressure cookers?
MUMBAI: The 2006 train blasts case remains controversial due to the claims of the Maharashtra ATS that the blasts were carried out by SIMI with the support of LeT while a subsequent claim two years later by the Mumbai crime branch said it was the handiwork of an Indian Mujaheeddin module which it had busted. In court, the ATS chargesheet only mentioned household utensils were used in the blasts, and the use of pressure cookers surfaced only during the trial. The ATS theory that pressure cookers were used also raised some questions since the shopkeeper from where eight of these were purchased was not called for a test identification parade and no sketches of the suspect were prepared and circulated based on his description. You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai Besides recovery of some pressure cookers and related accessories at the instance of the accused, there is no mention of these in his statement, according to the Bombay high court judgment acquitting the accused. Another accused mentioned the use of RDX and timers for the blasts, but there was no mention of pressure cooker. In 2008, the crime branch, headed by Rakesh Maria, arrested Sadiq Shaikh, an alleged member of the IM, for the Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts, along with others. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 15 most beautiful women in the world Shaikh allegedly told officials of the crime branch that the IM was responsible for all the blasts, including the train blasts. The trial court while convicting the accused rejected the defence claim of IM module involvement. An investigation by the Delhi police's special cell, alongside the interrogation of Yasin Bhatkal of th IM, too had found that the train bombings were carried out by IM operatives. The IM had claimed responsibility for the Mumbai blasts along with three other strikes in an email sent to media houses in Nov 2007, said sources. The Delhi police even came on record to state this after the arrest of IM's shadowy co-founder, Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, on Jan 20, 2018. Tauqeer was the one who used to sign off as 'al-Arabi' on the emails sent by the IM after every blast. The Delhi police said both Yasin Bhatkal and Shaikh disclosed the role of Atif Amin, who went to Mumbai specifically for this task along with other members who were later found at Batla House in Delhi in 2008. The module, comprising Shaikh, Amin, and Bhatkal, met once again in Mumbai at a McDonald's restaurant in Andheri before the Ahmedabad blasts, an officer said. "The use of pressure cooker bombs was another IM signature style at the time," he said. In Mumbai, though, some senior police officers said the LeT claim by the ATS and the differing, IM claim by the crime branch may have been a case of one-upmanship. After the train blast, the then Mumbai police commissioner A N Roy stated at a press conference that bombs were planted in pressure cookers and were the handiwork of LeT. At the time — Vilasrao Deshmukh was the Maharashtra chief minister and R R Patil the deputy chief minister, who also held the home portfolio — the Mumbai crime branch was not connected to the case, but after the 2008 blast in Ahmedabad, a suspicious vehicle stolen from the Mumbai region became part of the case when it was found parked outside a civil hospital in Ahmedabad. Through CCTV footage, the vehicle thief, Afzal Usmani was traced and it was found that he had stolen four vehicles from Navi Mumbai which were used in the blast in Ahmedabad. It led to the arrest of Shaikh and his other IM group members. Shaikh had claimed that he, along with Riyaz Bhatkal, Arif Badruddin Shaikh, Amin, Shahnawaz, with the help of other members, carried out the blasts on the instruction of Amir Raza at Mominpura in Delhi, Sankatmochan Mandir in Varanasi, on the Shramjeevi Express, and on Mumbai train from Feb 2005 to Sept 2008. He had claimed in his initial statement that Raza sent explosives and materials for this purpose with help from Riyaz Bhatkal or his men, while Arif Badar prepared the clock timer circuit. He, Badar, Bhatkal and Amin knew how to prepare bombs and circuits. The trial court found the statements "vague".
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
11/7 Mumbai train bombings: MCOCA court had rejected defence's claims of custodial torture & IM hand
11/7 Mumbai train bombings MUMBAI: In a 1,839-page judgment, now overturned by Bombay HC, the special MCOCA court in 2015 had rejected the defence's claim that Indian Mujahideen (IM) was responsible for the 11/7 Mumbai train bombings. On Sept 30, 2015, five alleged bomb planters had been sentenced to death and seven others handed life sentences. Special judge Yatin Shinde, since deceased, had said that police officials who initially entertained this theory, particularly after the 'confession' of alleged IM member Sadiq Shaikh, 'fell prey to the tactics or strategy of terrorist organisations to confuse the investigating agency'. The judge attempted to dismantle the defence's argument, pointing out that the alleged modus operandi of IM — sending emails before blasts and claiming responsibility — was not observed in the train attacks. The judge refuted defence arguments that the convicts were merely 'foot soldiers' acting at the behest of mastermind Azam Cheema. The judge observed, 'The 12 are not foot soldiers. Though the idea of the present crime generated from across the border, they formed an independent organised crime syndicate on the basis of their background of being members and activists of banned organisation SIMI. They did spadework and groundwork using their brains. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo ' The eleven confession statements, now deemed inadmissible by HC, found mention in over 200 pages of the 2015 judgment. The judge had rejected claims of torture and ill-treatment made by several accused. The judge said allegations of 'inhuman and unbearable' torture by ATS were unsubstantiated by the available evidence. 'It is unacceptable and impossible that the accused, who were duly represented by their advocates and who had been meeting their family members, did not complain even on a single occasion to magistrates,' the judge said. The judge had awarded the death sentence to five convicts, identifying them as the most culpable due to their direct role in planting the bombs. 'The accused thought that they can outsmart the intelligence and investigating agencies and therefore developed new stories every time and adopted various tactics. I am, therefore, constrained to hold only death penalty and nothing less than that,' the judge had said. While all 12 were found guilty of offences punishable by death, the judge deemed it unjustifiable to impose the maximum penalty on seven, who were sentenced to life in prison. 'One cannot say with certainty that the remaining seven accused would have taken the last step of pulling the trigger — planting the bomb — or would have backed out,' the judge stated. The judge emphasised that the option of sentencing the five bomb planters to life imprisonment was ruled out by 'the simple fact of the massacre of human beings'. 'These are not simple murders and this is not a simple murder case. It was mindless, cold-blooded and wanton killing of innocent, defenceless and unsuspecting persons,' the judge asserted. noted that the prosecution rightly described the accused as 'merchants of death'. Rubbishing the defence, the court held it was not up to it to decide whether a person acted according to religion or not. 'It is a question in these modern days as to how many Muslims, or for that matter Hindus or persons of any religion, follow their religion scrupulously. If they would have followed religion scrupulously, there would not have been crimes of murder, rape and blasts, etc.'
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Two Indians, two Chinese, one coveted chess World Cup trophy
CHENNAI: ONE of Divya Deshmukh or Koneru Humpy will feature in next year's women's Candidates, the eight-player double round-robin tournament whose topper will play in the 2026 edition of the women's world Championships. This was confirmed after Humpy's win in the quarterfinal against Yuxin Song on Sunday. On Monday, Deshmukh joined her senior compatriot in the last four after her tie-break win over D Harika in the women's World Cup in Batumi. The teen, an age-group world champion, continued her fairy tale run in Georgia as she took down another GM. A few days after bringing down the second seed and one of the pre-tournament favourites, China's Zhu Jiner's, she repeated the trick against Harika as she won both the tie-break games. After the pair of games, she credited her coach 'for the prep'. "I would have to say the preparation had a lot of role in that game (first game of the break with white pieces)," she said. "I would have to thank my coach for that." Neither player held a clear advantage out of the opening — the eval bar was pretty much level after 20 moves — but the 19-year-old built up an advantage thanks to couple of sharp moves as she punished several of Harika's questionable moves in the middlegame. A blunder from her — 27. c6 — put the younger Indian in the driver's seat. And it's an advantage she didn't relinquish till Harika resigned. Both players traded major inaccuracies in the second of the two breakers. At one point of time in the endgame, Harika had the chance to win on demand but there were some miscalculations and the IM won a second game in succession. She faces Tan Zhongyi in one of the two semis, while Humpy faces the other Chinese, Lei Tingjie, for a place in the final.
News18
2 days ago
- Sport
- News18
FIDE World Women's Chess Cup: Divya Pips Harika, Inches Closer To Semis
Last Updated: IM Divya Deshmukh defeated Harika Dronavalli in the first tiebreaker, inching closer to the FIDE World Women's Chess Cup semifinals. IM Divya Deshmukh defeated Harika Dronavalli with white pieces in the first tiebreaker, to move closer to semifinal of the FIDE World Women's Chess Cup. Divya Deshmukh and Harika Dronavalli drew both classical games in their all-Indian quarterfinal clash. The winner of this contest will join compatriot Koneru Humpy and China's Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi in the semifinals. What Is The Format? The tiebreaker format for the FIDE Women's World Cup is as follows if the two-game classical match ends in a draw: A two-game match with each player having 15 minutes and a 10-second increment per move. A two-game match with each player having 10 minutes and a 10-second increment per move. A two-game match with each player having five minutes and a three-second increment per move. A two-game match with each player having three minutes and a two-second increment per move. Players continue with 3+2 games until a decisive result determines the match winner. The World Cup provides three spots for the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament, scheduled for the first half of 2026. view comments First Published: July 21, 2025, 17:38 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
