Ex-judge, back as lawyer, says probe in '06 blasts case biased

Nineteen years on, the victims of the 2006 serial blasts on Mumbai suburban network await justice.

- Karuna Nidhi

But as do some of the accused, submitted senior advocate S Muralidhar on Monday. The former chief justice of the Orissa high court 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 and injured over 700. 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.