7/11 blasts case: Court asks defence to submit draft charges

Mumbai, Aug 1 (UNI) The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court here today asked all defence advocates to submit their draft charges by August 6, to enable the court to frame charges against the 13 accused involved in the serial train blasts of July 11 last year.

Granting time to defence advocates to make the submission of draft charges till August 6, MCOCA court Judge Mridula Bhatkar observed that she had given sufficient time to the accused persons to arrange for lawyers.

Ms Bhatkar directed the accused who had not hired lawyers so far or whose advocates were absent in the court to argue on draft charges by August 6 or argue in person.

The judge cautioned, she could not grant more time to them, as she has to carry on the proceedings of the case.

In the blasts, 187 people had been killed and over 700 injured.

According to 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