On July 21, after nearly two decades of incarceration, 12 men accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts were finally set free. Of the 12, five men were on the death row, while seven were serving life sentences. Wahid Sheikh, another accused, had been earlier set free after nine years in prison. Their acquittal shows the collapse of a case that was built by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on a foundation of torture, fabricated evidence, and forced confessions.
This is the story of how 13 men were systemically framed to solve a high-profile terror attack, while the real perpetrators’ confessions were ignored to protect the conspiracy, and the ‘reputation’ of the Maharashtra police.
In the wake of their acquittal, I look at how the Maharashtra police and the ATS tailored this ‘narrative’. I rely on publicly available case documents, research, and conversations with the affected men and their families to trace the two-decade long injustice. I have spoken with Wahid several times over the last half decade, researched the entire case through court filings, chargesheets, and judgements. I also have access to testimonies of all the victims through colleagues who were researching the blasts with me.
Arrests on manufactured–read Muslim–grounds
Eighteen years ago, on July 11, 2006, seven blasts killed over 200 people in the first class compartments of Mumbai’s suburban local trains. The ATS soon launched an operation and rounded up numerous individuals. The reasons for their arrests were arbitrary, based on a conspiracy that targeted their Muslim identities.
The ATS alleged that blasts were executed by the 13 arrested men, who were an “Indian terror cell working with Pakistani handlers” and funded from overseas. The men were Kamal Ahmed Ansari, Tanveer Ahmed Ansari, Faisal Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Majid, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam, Sajid Ansari Marghoob, Abdul Wahid Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Suhail Shaikh, Zameer Ahmed Shaikh, Naveed Husain Khan, and Asif Khan Bashir Khan.
As per the ATS’ narrative, the bombs were assembled in seven pressure cookers at the residence of Mohammad Ali Alam in Govandi, with the help of 11 Pakistanis who secretly stayed there. To establish the motive of religious extremism, the ATS misinterpreted a religious text message from Kamal Ansari as a ‘sinister’ code. The ATS connected these individuals who had never met until then and assigned them roles in a conspiracy. The evidence and the HC judgement clearing the men shows that this was fabricated and that they were actually never involved in the blasts.
Kamal Ahmed Ansari, the first suspect picked up, was arrested from his village in Bihar seven days after the blasts, on July 18. The primary evidence cited against him by the ATS was a text message he had sent to his brother-in-law, which, they claimed, "reeked of religious extremism".
The text had said, “May Allah, the Almighty grant you patience as that of Hazrat Ayyub (A.S.)! May you have beauty as that of Hazrat Yousuf (A.S.)! May you are endowed with faith as that of Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S.)! May you are crowned with an obedient son like that of Hazrat Ismail (A.S.)! May you are blessed with noble character as that of Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.W.)!” (sic)
Ansari maintained that he was not even in Mumbai on the day of the blasts. In fact, he was in his village on July 10 and had crossed into Nepal for a few hours on July 11—a fact recorded in Nepal's official BHANSAR register. The ATS was accused of concealing his call data records (CDR), which would have proven his location.
Mohammad Ali Alam was picked up from his house a couple of days after the blasts, for what the police described as a brief inquiry with Inspector Vijay Salaskar. His wife, Saidunnisa, recounted that the "brief inquiry" stretched out into two months of illegal detention before a chargesheet was finally prepared.
Faisal Shaikh, an engineering dropout who was trying to run a small business in Mumbai, was arrested on July 19. It didn’t stop there—the Maharashtra police, in their wisdom, decided to charge an entire family.
Faisal’s younger brother Muzammil Shaikh was arrested a month later from his new job at Oracle in Bangalore, despite not being in Mumbai at the time of the blasts. Their third brother, Rahil, who had been in London since a year, was also named as an absconding accused.
With no actual evidence at hand against the suspects, the ATS resorted to extreme torture to fabricate a case from scratch. This is made evident by the case documents, accused’s statements, lawyers filings, and the accounts of the accused, which paint a horrifying picture of their time in custody. Following his release, Wahid also wrote the book Begunah Qaidi, in which he detailed the case and his life in jail.
Systemic torture
Kamal Ahmed Ansari says that he was inflicted with third-degree torture at the Chandan Chowki and Kala Chowki ATS units. Tanveer Ahmed Ansari names specific police officials who subjected him to third-degree torture and threatened to kill him if he spoke to the judge.
Faisal Shaikh was subjected to "Chinese water torture," which resulted in him developing a brain tumour. Ehtesham Siddiqui, another accused, was mercilessly beaten, had his palms and soles pinned to the floor, and was given electric shocks to his private parts.
In journalist and author Josy Joseph’s book The Silent Coup, Wahid recalled the questioning tactics:
“The policemen pulled out a bottle of Surya Prakash oil—an Ayurvedic mix of oils extracted from eucalyptus, clove, mint and camphor—prescribed for pain relief. But in the interrogation rooms of the ATS, the oil was not being put to use as a tool in the war on terror.
The team thrust a tube into Wahid’s rectum and injected the oil into his body. Within a few minutes, his body was on fire. He started jumping.”
All 13 men were tortured and coerced to give fake statements against themselves.
Threats against families
A common tactic allegedly used by the ATS was to threaten the families of the accused. ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi allegedly threatened to implicate Kamal Ansari's family. Faisal Shaikh was warned that the women in his family would be raped and his father implicated if he didn't cooperate. These are just a few instances.
Forced confessions
Under duress, the accused were forced to sign blank or pre-written papers. In fact, Faisal had been threatened by ATS ACP Singhal that they would “rape the women in his family and implicate his father in the case” if he tried to prove his innocence. When he was taken to DCP Brijesh Singh to sign the false confessions, Faisal recounts being told by the DCP that they were "working under a lot of pressure" and that Faisal had "no choice" but to sign the confession.
Tanveer Ansari retracted his forced confession in court, but the ATS defied a judge's order for a medical check-up and took him directly to jail, where he was beaten further.
This allegedly went on for years.
The case relied heavily on evidence that was fabricated. We examine some instances of it in this report.
The cooker story
Two months after his arrest, the ATS seized a single pressure cooker from Mohammad Ali Alam's home in Govandi. “They took a cooker from our house. They couldn’t find anything else. They later alleged that we used to make bombs in this cooker,” Alam’s wife had testified. However, when they spoke to the media, the ATS claimed that they had found seven cookers used for making bombs at his home. His wife and brother said the police’s claims that the 11 alleged Pakistani terrorists stayed in their tiny, crowded house to build bombs was false—something like that would have been impossible to hide from their neighbours, they said.
False witnesses
Several witnesses were allegedly brought from far-off locations and tutored by the ATS.
In Tanveer Ansari's case, a false punchnama was prepared with a panch (witness) who was later revealed to have served as a witness in other police cases as well. It’s a police technique that is used even today, with witnesses on the police's payroll.
In Majid Shafi's case, his business partner Mohammed Shakeel was intimidated into testifying against him, falsely stating that Majid hosted Pakistanis and helped them cross the border. Shakeel later told his family he was tortured and forced to lie.
In the two decades since their arrests, the accused and their families faced financial, emotional, and physical difficulties.
Tanveer Ansari's mother died from the shock of his arrest; he was granted only 90 minutes of parole for her funeral despite a court order prescribing five hours.
Majid Shafi's wife Farzana developed multiple organ failure and kidney disease due to the stress, and was left to raise their daughter in poverty, telling her school that her father worked in the Gulf to hide the truth.
The most glaring contradiction in the ATS' case emerged in September 2008, when the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested the terror group Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) co-founder Sadiq Sheikh. While the ATS was busy in building its fake conspiracy and chain of evidence along with tortured confessions, Sheikh gave a video confession in February 2009, taking responsibility for the train blasts.
Sheikh described the entire plot in detail, including how five IM members, including himself, Atif, and Abu Rashid, planned the attack. He explained how they rented a flat in Mumbai’s Sewri, how another IM co-founder, Riyaz Bhatkal, arranged for 35-37 kg of explosives from Mangaluru, and how they purchased cookers and bags in Mumbai.
He gave a step-by-step account of how the seven cookers were filled with explosives on the morning of July 11, the timers were set, and planted one by one in the first class compartments of different western line suburban local trains to cause mass casualties during evening peak hours.
Despite this detailed confession from the leader of a known terror outfit, the ATS, led by KP Raghuvanshi, publicly insisted that the 13 men they had arrested were the real culprits and there was "enough evidence" against them.
It is interesting to note that the Mumbai Crime Branch made no noise around this. The crime branch, then led by Rakash Maria, must have been protecting their colleagues from the ATS, instead of the pursuit of Justice.
Even when police officers privately admitted to the accused and their families that they knew they were innocent but were being "pressured into framing them," the official narrative never changed. Sadiq Sheikh later retracted his confession, a move clearly orchestrated by authorities to avoid discrediting the ATS's entire case and to keep the 13 men in prison.
ATS ACP’s alleged suicide
While this was going on, Vinod Bhatt, an ATS Assistant Commissioner of Police who was in charge of the case, allegedly died by suicide on August 29, 2006.
During the investigation, Bhatt had summoned Wahid to his office at the ATS station in Bhoiwada. Ehtesham Siddiqui, another accused, was also present in the room.
Wahid said that Bhatt had told them that he had looked through all the documents and statements, and had come to the conclusion that they were innocent. Wahid remembered Bhatt saying he was under pressure from Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy and ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi to file charge sheets against them. He said that Bhatt also alleged that the 13 men were caught as the ATS didn’t know who the real culprits were.
In The Silent Coup, we are given a glimpse into their conversation:
“Ehtesham: We have always said that we are innocent. Why were we arrested?
Bhatt: Because we haven't found the real culprits.”
Bhatt reportedly assured Wahid and Ehtesham that he would rather die than let innocent people fall. He said:
“Ehtesham: Will we be released from this case?
Bhatt: Have faith in Allah, I will die but not let innocent people fall.”
On November 3, 2006, an unsigned letter addressed to the President of India detailed how several ATS officers were being coerced by seniors, namely AN Roy and KP Raghuvanshi, to arrest and build fake evidence against the 13 men in the blast case. The letter also alleged that Bhatt died by suicide due to this pressure.
The acquittal of these men momentarily closes a painful chapter for them.What should now follow is a chapter of serious and unbiased inquiry into police impunity, misconduct, and criminal conspiracy—an investigation into the investigators, into a system that labelled innocents as terrorists for decades and faced no consequences.
While these officials get to retire with benefits, live a lavish life, or take on post retirement jobs, their conspiracy ruined innumerable lives.
It is also crucial to call it out now, as the Maharashtra government led by Devendra Fadnavis is set to challenge the Bombay High Court order clearing these 12 men and has already appealed in the Supreme Court. An inquiry into the officers is important, especially at a time when the Maharashtra government is pushing through the draconian Special Public Security Bill that will vest more impunity and opacity in the state and police.
The Bill is a furthering of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ fight against the “new kind of terror” led by “urban Maoist networks” that ‘brainwash’ youth, professionals, and civil servants. “Maoists are trying to brainwash the youth of the urban areas and make them stand up against the democratic system of the country,” he said.
The Bill’s statement of objects said, “The menace of Naxalism is not only limited to remote areas of the Naxal-affected states, but its presence is increasing in urban areas too, through the Naxal front organisations”.
The new law will further embolden the suppression of free speech, crush dissent, and help the State create more ‘fall men’, who wouldn’t necessarily be just Muslims anymore.