7/11: Transfer plea of accused rejected

Mumbai, Sep 6: A court here rejected a petition by the accused in the 7/11 Mumbai suburban trains blasts case, seeking transfer of their cases from the court of MCOCA judge Mridula Bhatkar.

City Civil and Session Court Principal Judge Ashok Bhangale upheld the special public prosecutor Raja Thakre's argument that as per a Maharashtra Government notification, the Principal Judge does not have the power to transfer MCOCA cases.

The accused had prayed that their cases be transferred to any other court as they did not expect justice from the the present court.

On July 11 last year, a series of seven blasts on suburban trains had rocked the Metropolis, leaving over 180 people dead and more than 700 injured.

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 executed the 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 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