A taxi driver and a commuter, who had identified the accused as the people who planted bombs in commuter trains, have helped the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in solving the July 11 train blasts case.
MUMBAI: A taxi driver and a commuter, who had identified the accused as the people who planted bombs in commuter trains, have helped the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in solving the July 11 train blasts case.
A commuter was hit with a bag carried by a person who barged into the first class compartment of the train as it was leaving Churchgate. He even got into an argument with the person carrying a heavy bag purportedly having a bomb, the chargesheet, filed in a special court on Friday, said.
When the commuter read in newspapers about the bombs being planted in pressure cookers kept in bags by various persons separately in seven local trains, he rushed to the ATS and informed them about the altercation he had with a fellow commuter in the first class compartment and offered to identify him.
The ATS, on rounding up accused, arranged for an identification parade in which the commuter identified the accused.
In another instance, a taxi driver narrated his experience in a statement to ATS saying two persons had hired his taxi on July 11 from suburban Bandra and asked him to take them to Churchgate.
They kept a bag on the front seat and sat behind. On the way the taxi driver applied the brakes and the bag was on the verge of falling. This prompted the duo to scold the driver for driving in a rash manner.
The taxi driver went to the ATS after the bomb blasts and identified an accused as one of the persons who had hired his taxi on July 11, said the chargesheet, which was filed four months after the blasts that killed nearly 200 people.
Both taxi driver and railway commuter are cited as witnesses in the case and their statements form part of the chargesheet.
ATS has listed a total of 2,200 witnesses in the case.
The chargesheet also said that ATS has seized a Maruti car in which bombs, assembled in suburban Govandi, were shifted to the house of accused Mohammed Faisal in Bandra before being planted in local trains on July 11.
The car seized by police has traces of RDX, chargesheet pointed out.
The bombs were assembled in the house of co-accused Shaikh Mohammed Ali Shaikh in Govandi area of North-east Mumbai and was kept for a day in Faisal's house before being planted in the trains, it said.
About 200 persons were killed and 817 injured when bombs went off in seven local trains between Churchgate and Virar on July 11.
A total of 28 accused figure in the chargesheet and of them 13, including Shaikh Mohammed Ali Shaikh and Faisal, are in judicial custody while the remaining 15 are abscounding.
ATS spent Rs 27 lakh on intelligence gathering and 246 investigators were involved in the probe. The total loss suffered by Western Railway was to the tune of Rs 2.28 crore.
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