Bombay High Court dismisses government appeal in blasts case

The Bombay high court on Monday dismissed the state government’s appeal against the acquittal of three people accused in the Mulund blasts case, and a simultaneous plea seeking the enhancement of their jail terms. The court rejected the state’s requests on technical grounds.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Amjad Sayed dismissed the appeal filed against the acquitted accused — Mohammed Nadeem Paloba, Haroon Rashid Lohar and Adnan Mulla — saying the appeal has been filed for the enhancement of punishment for the convicted accused, and the state should challenge the acquittals through a separate appeal.

The court also dismissed the appeal against the three convicts since even though they were convicted with less than the maximum punishment prescribed under the law, they had already undergone more than the maximum possible punishment for which they had been convicted.

Senior counsel Yug Mohit Choudhary, along with advocate Sharif Shaikh, had pointed out to the court on the last date of hearing that some convicts — namely Mohammed Kamil, Noor Mohammed Ansari and Anwar Ali — were facing a maximum punishment of three years only.

They had also pointed out that during arguments on the quantum of punishment, the public prosecutor had said that he was leaving it to the court to decide their punishment and the trial court had awarded them two years’ imprisonment. The court was informed that these convicts had already undergone eight years of imprisonment during the trial.