Copies of draft charges supplied to accused in 7/11 case

Mumbai, July 31 (UNI) The special MCOCA court here today supplied copies of draft charges to 13 accused in last year's July train blasts in the metropolis.

MCOCA court judge Mridula Bhatkar rejected the oral plea of the accused who sought some time to engage lawyers. Judge Bhatkar said sufficient time had been provided to the accused. The judge said the accused would be granted time to engage lawyers after the charges are framed.

Near-simultaneous seven blasts in suburban trains on July 11 last year had killed 187 people and left over 700 injured.

According to the prosecution, the accused -- 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 had allegedly executed a plan to explode seven bombs at seven different places in a span of 11 minutes between 1824 hrs and 1835 hrs.

On November 30 last year, the prosecution had filed a chargesheet running into over 10,000 pages against the 13 accused, who are presently in judicial custody. The Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) had also filed a supplementary chargesheet against all the accused on April 9 this year.

UNI