The Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 Muslim men on 21 July 2025 convicted of 2006 Bombay train blasts after being falsely imprisoned for 19 years, accused of membership of SIMI with links to Lashakar-e-Taiba.
On 11 July 2006, Mumbai witnessed one of the deadliest terror attacks in its history where seven bombs exploded in first-class compartments of Mumbai’s suburban trains, killing 189 people and injuring over 800.
The blasts, which took place within minutes of each other, left the city in shock and mourning.
Following the attacks, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 13 Muslim men, alleging that they were members of the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and had links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, A Pakistan based militant outfit.
In 2015, a special court convicted 12 of them, sentencing five to death and seven to life imprisonment for planting and supporting the bombs.
However, on 21 July 2025, the Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 men.
The court cited an “utter failure” of the prosecution, noting coerced confessions, contradictory witness statements, mishandled forensic evidence, and flaws in identification procedures.
The judges observed that the authorities could not even confirm the exact type of explosives used and that evidence collection had been deeply flawed.
The human cost of this miscarriage of justice has been enormous.
Twelve men spent 17 to 19 years in prison, losing the prime years of their lives. Families faced poverty, social ostracism, and lasting trauma.
The accused missed marriages, the births of their children, and important family milestones, while their children grew up without fathers.
One of the accused, Kamal Ansari, died in prison in 2021, never seeing freedom.
After the acquittal, eight men were released immediately from Nagpur and Amravati prisons, while two remained detained for other pending cases, and one had already been out on parole.
Among those freed was Dr Tanvir Ansari, a physician who spent nearly 19 years in prison. Upon his release, he expressed deep anguish, saying that the ATS had ruined his life and that his calling had always been to save lives, not take them.
The case has drawn widespread criticism of India’s investigative and judicial processes.
Legal experts and activists have called for urgent reforms to prevent such miscarriages of justice, pointing to custodial torture, delayed confessions, poor evidence handling, and a lack of eyewitness testimony.
This case remains one of the most significant recent examples of potential judicial miscarriage of justice in India. It highlights persistent concerns about investigatory rigour, rights of the accused, and the human cost of flawed prosecutions.
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