HC grants bail to 13/7 blasts accused, in jail for over 10 years

The accused, Kafeel Ahmed Ayub, was granted bail considering his prolonged incarceration of more than 10 years and little scope of completion of the trial in the foreseeable future

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to a 65-year-old man who was allegedly a part of the organised syndicate that executed the triple blasts in the city on July 13, 2011, which killed more than 20 people. The accused, Kafeel Ahmed Ayub, was granted bail considering his prolonged incarceration of more than 10 years and little scope of completion of the trial in the foreseeable future.

HC grants bail to 13/7 blasts accused, in jail for over 10 years

The division bench of justices AS Gadkari and RR Bhonsale, while granting bail to Ayub, referred to a landmark 2021 judgement (Union of India vs. KA Najeeb) by the Supreme Court, which said that bail could not be indefinitely denied even to those booked under stringent laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Ayub and the other accused in the 2011 triple blasts are being tried under the UAPA, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), and various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Explosives Act relating to murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, and other offences.

The triple blasts – at Zaveri Bazar, Opera House and Dadar – occurred on July 13, 2011, during the evening rush hour. The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Mumbai police took over the probe on July 18, 2011, after the registration of three first information reports (FIRs). The agency arrested Ayub, a Bihar resident, on May 19, 2012, and obtained his custody from the Delhi police special cell based on a transfer warrant. The Delhi police special cell had arrested Ayub on February 22, 2012.

Ayub, the fifth accused to be arrested in the triple blasts case, was subsequently lodged at Arthur Road jail. He approached the high court for bail in May 2022, after his bail plea was rejected by a special MCOCA trial court earlier that year.

According to the prosecution, Ayub and the other co-accused indoctrinated the youth to carry out ‘jihad’. Ayub closely accompanied the alleged mastermind of the case, Yasin, and was an active member of the organised syndicate that executed the blasts. He was also associated with harboured co-accused persons “repeatedly when they were in need of executing the plan” and later arranged hideouts for the co-accused, the prosecution alleged.

Ayub’s bail plea said the charges against him were “vague” and nowhere in his confession recorded under the MCOCA was it mentioned that he was aware or had knowledge about the blasts, which is essential to prove conspiracy. To keep him incarcerated for long without a trial was an “anathema to democracy and the rule of law”, the bail plea said. His counsel Mubin Solkar stressed that keeping an undertrial in custody indefinitely violated their constitutional rights. He also said that Ayub had deep roots in India and was not at flight risk.