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Mumbai:
Deposing before the Special
Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) Court as
witness, one of the accused in the July 2006 Mumbai train blast on
Tuesday said that he never visited Govandi in his life - a claim
contradictory to the charges framed against him by the police.
"Since my arrival in Mumbai for the
first time in 1996, I have never visited the Govandi area of the
city", Ehtesham Siddiqui, one of the accused arrested in the 2006
Mumbai train blast case, said in reply to a question.
Ehtesham Siddiqui has been accused
of manufacturing pressure cooker bombs with other accused at the
Govandi residence of Mohammad Ali, another accused charge-sheeted
in the case.
Denying the charges against him, he
said that he came to Mumbai in 1996 from Jaunpur and stayed in
Meera Road. He later took admission in an engineering college in
Pen. "On September 27, 2001 while I was still in the third year of
my Chemical Engineering course, Kurla police arrested me. I was
released on bail after remaining in police custody for about
fifteen days", he said.
He said that he was asked to report
to the police station two times in a day. "It forced me to
discontinue my education in the middle", he said.
He also said he was called by other
police stations for interrogations. "I was called to different
police stations especially when there were blasts in any part", he
said.
He also said that at the time of the
blasts on July 11, 2006 he was in Meera Road. "I was offering
Maghrib prayers in a Meera Road mosque on the fateful day, and was
informed about the blasts when I came out of the mosque", he said.
The police claimed that Siddiqui was
at Churchgate railway station on July 11 and had played a key role
in planting the bombs, according to the details provided by the
defence lawyers.
He said he talked to his mother on
mobile phone after the blast, who advised him to take care.
Ehtesham Siddiqui was deposing
before the Special MCOCA court after telecom companies submitted
the call records of the accused in the court.
The accused after submission of the
call records had petitioned before the court to depose as
witnesses.
On July 11, 2006 -- RDX laden bombs
ripped the first class compartments of seven local trains in the
Western Railways during peak evening hours. The blasts took place
within the span of 11 minutes between 6.24 PM to 6.35 PM.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) probing the case had arrested 13
alleged members of SIMI and LeT for carrying out the blasts. The
agency had charged them under various sections of Indian Penal
Code, MCOCA and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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