2008 Serial Blasts: Delhi High Court denies bail to three Indian Mujahideen operatives

The Delhi High Court recently denied bail to three members of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen who were allegedly associated with the 2008 serial bomb blasts across India..A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Shalinder Kaur rejected the petitions filed by two of the men - Mubeen Kadar Shaikh, Saquib Nisar. Another Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain denied bail to a third accused, Mansoor Ashgar Peerbhoy.The Court considered the allegations against the accused and concluded that they do not deserve to be released on bail.However, it asked the trial court, which has been hearing the case against the three accused on every Saturday, to conclude the trial by taking up the matter at least twice a week.It noted that the right to speedy trial is the accused’s right and they have been in custody since 2008.“This Court prior to dictating of the present appeal raised a query to learned Additional Public Prosecutor for State with regard to specific stage of the trial. We are informed that total 497 witnesses were cited, out of which 198 witnesses were dropped and so far 282 witnesses have already been examined and only 17 witnesses are left to be examined. We are informed that the learned Special Court is conducting proceedings on every Saturday so as to expedite conclusion of trial, which is already at its fag end. However, in the peculiar facts of the present case and keeping in view that the appellant is behind bars since the 2008, we direct the concerned Special Court to conclude the trial in the present matter by taking it up at least twice a week,” the Court ordered..Shaikh and Peerboy were arrested in the year 2008 and were accused of being members of the media cell of Indian Mujahideen.They allegedly sent the message to several media organisations of India and Pakistan with the heading “Message of Death” and claiming “intense, accurate and successive bomb attacks” in the country exactly 5 minutes after the mail.Nisar was accused of hatching the conspiracy with other accused for serial blasts in Delhi which killed 26 people.According to the prosecution, Nisar was assigned the task to remain in a flat at Batla House and answer the phone calls of his associates so that they could bluff the investigating agencies. .Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan along with advocate Siddharth Sunil and Aditya Wadhwa appeared for Mubeen Kadar Shaikh.Advocates Mehmood Pracha, Rudro Chatterjee, Sanawar Choudhary, Jatin Bhatt, Yashovardhan Oza, Faisal Moiuddin, Mohd Hasan, RHA Shikandar, Harshit S Gahlot, Mohd. Shameem and Nujhat Naseem represented Saquib Nisar and Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy.Additional Public Prosecutors Tarang Srivastava and Ritesh Kumar Bahri represented the State..[Read Judgments]