The High Court on Tuesday assured that it will conduct the hearing on the appeal filed by the accused in the 2006 serial bomb blast case. The court gave this assurance noting that the appeals filed by the accused have been pending for many years.
A bench of Justice Bharti Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande clarified that the date of hearing on the appeal filed by the convicted accused against the sentence as well as the stay of the verdict on the death sentence will be fixed soon. The accused had filed a petition seeking an early hearing of their appeals, which have been pending for the past nine years. During the hearing on the same, the bench gave the above assurance to the accused. On July 11, Mumbai bomb blast will complete 18 years.
In September 2015, a special court sentenced five of the 12 to death and seven others to life imprisonment. Soon after, the accused were arrested. Since then, they have been under arrest for the last 18 years. A case of confirmation of the death sentence passed by the lower court has been filed in the High Court. Along with these accused, other accused have also appealed against the sentence. However, the court was told on behalf of the accused that these petitions are still pending despite the request.
Apart from 192 government and 51 defense witnesses, there are 190 sets of evidence in this case. The court was also told that due to this large amount of evidence, the matter could not be heard in the High Court yet.
However, clarifying that the hearing of the appeal will not be delayed or kept pending for this reason, the court asked the counsel for the government and the accused as to how long the arguments would be completed. On behalf of the accused, lawyer Yug Chaudhary and special public prosecutor Raja Thackeray told the court that if the case is heard daily, the arguments will be completed in six months. Subsequently, the court clarified that the date of hearing on the appeal would be fixed this week.
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