"No Innocent Should Be Punished": Ajit Pawar's Big Statement On Train Blast

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, speaking today on the Supreme Court verdict in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, said "some innocent people were also trapped in this case". "No innocent should be punished, and no guilty should be let off," he added. The comment has raised eyebrows, given the state government has challenged the Bombay High Court's decision to let off all 12 accused in the case in the Supreme Court.

The top court today put the High Court's decision on freeze, but did not bar the release of the accused. The court also said that the High Court's judgment will not be considered as a precedent in cases filed under the state's anti-terror and anti-organised crime law MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act). 

"We cannot say much about the Supreme Court's order. Some innocent people were also trapped in this case... We believe no one should face injustice... But those who are guilty must be punished... We are not against anyone... But we do not support anyone either," Mr Pawar told reporters shortly after the top court made its decision. 

"The government has decided to appeal against the Bombay High Court's verdict... Our Chief Minister had made the stance clear... We will present good lawyers in the Supreme Court and identify the shortcomings in the High Court proceedings," Ajit Pawar has said. 

Many have concluded that the Deputy Chief Minister's comment construes a deviation - however tiny - from the government's stance in the case. And ahead of the elections to the cash-rich Brihanmumbai corporation, it has assumed significance. 

Mr Pawar had also suggested a short-cut to non-Marathi people caught in the crosshairs of the language row - another deviation that has raised eyebrows.  

"The language of the state you live in should be respected... From Maharashtra to Jammu and Kashmir, everyone should be proud of their mother tongue... But what is going on in the name of language at present... People living here who do not know Marathi -- they should say politely that 'We do not know Marathi, we are learning it'. 
If you say this, then there will be no problem," he has said. 

The Bombay High Court had overturned the special court's judgment in the train blasts case in which five of the 12 accused were sentenced to death and the rest were given life imprisonment. One of the accused on death row died in 2021. 

Among the rest were a former call centre employee, a seller of unani medicines, a software engineer, a key maker and chicken seller. Many of them were allegedly connected to banned organisation SIMI. They were accused of receiving training in Pakistan and helping terrorists from Pakistan with logistics. 

While ordering the release, the Bombay High Court had said that the case against them was based on coerced confessions and testimonies from unreliable witnesses. The court also said the material evidence - which included recovered material and explosives - were "vulnerable to tampering" and hence inadmissible.