Defence advocates withdraw their 'vakalatnama'

Mumbai, Sep 3 (UNI) High drama prevailed in the special Maharashtra Control for Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court today as the 7/11 serial train blast's accused questioned the Court's credibility and stated they had no faith in the Judge.

The accused said ''We do not want advocates.'' Thereafter, all their advocates withdrew their 'vakalatnama' from the Court.

Judge Mridula Bhatkar had framed charges against all the accused in the last hearing.

In the 7/11 serial train blasts, more than 180 people had died and over 700 were injured in a span of 11 minutes.

According to the prosecution, the accused -- Kamal Ansari, Dr Tanvir Ansari, Faisal Sheikh, Ehtesham 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 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