Ex-judge takes up cudgels for 7/11 convicts

Ex-Delhi HC judge joins defence for two of the convicted accused, alleges confessions were induced by torture

- Karuna Nidhi

MUMBAI: Nineteen years on, the victims of the 2006 serial blasts on Mumbai suburban network await justice. But as do some of the convicted accused, submitted senior advocate S Muralidhar on Monday. The former Delhi high court judge who is now a practising advocate has joined the defence team for two of the 13 accused, Zameer Shaikh and Muzzammil Shaikh. In his submission before the Bombay High Court, the former judge pointed to what he called, serious flaws and communal bias in the investigation.

On July 11, 2006, a series of seven blasts on the western line of Mumbai's local trains killed 209 people, injured over 700 and left the city shaken. The explosions, believed to have been planted in pressure cookers which were stowed in the overhead compartments of the trains, were so powerful that they ripped through the double layered steel roofs and sides of each of the seven compartments.