7/11 blasts: Court to frame charges on July 30

Mumbai, June 22: The Maharashtra Control for Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court today fixed July 30 to frame charges against 13 accused involved in the serial train blasts of July 11 last year.

Granting time to the accused to appoint lawyers for conducting a fair trial, Judge Mridula Bhatkar said ''There will not be any change in framing of charges on July 30. The four accused who did not appoint the advocates, should do so by July five and they should file 'vakalatnama' at least by July 13.' Ms Bhatkar said she had given sufficient time to the accused.

No further application would be entertained henceforth.

The accused are Kamal Ansari, Dr Tanvir Ansari, Faisal Sheikh, Ehtesjham Siddique, Mohammed Majid Shafi, Mohammed Ali Aslam Sheikh, Mohammed Sajid, Abdul Wahiduddin, Muzammil Sheikh, Sohail Sheikh, Zameer Sheikh, Naveed Hussain and Asif Khan Basir Khan.

The prosecution's contention is that the accused had allegedly executed a plan to explode seven bombs simultaneously on the suburban trains of Western Railway on July 11 last year.

These bombs exploded at seven different places in a span of 11 minutes between 1824 hrs and 1835 hrs. In the blasts, more than 188 people were killed and over 700 injured.

On November 30 last year, the prosecution had filed an over 10,000-page chargesheet against the 13 accused, who are presently in judicial custody. The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had also filed a supplementary chargesheet against all the 13 accused on April nine this year.

UNI

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