Twelve years after a Bombay high court order, a special Mcoca court last week directed an inquiry to be conducted to ascertain if the 2011 Mumbai triple blasts case accused Nadeem Akhtar Shaikh was forced to give a confession by ATS officers. Shaikh said that he was inhumanly assaulted and threatened that his family would be falsely implicated if he did not confess.

Akhtar moved the special court conducting the trial in the case and submitted that this is the appropriate stage to decide his grievances. Police witnesses are currently deposing on the point of alleged confessions in the case. In a seven-page order on Wednesday, the special judge said, ‘Based on grievances made by the accused…and also, getting clarification from accused…in-person during the course of argument, this court is of the view that it has to inquire whether or not the ATS officers have compelled, coerced, forced the accused to give a confessional statement before the Additional MM (metropolitan magistrate).’
The judge further said that it is not an inquiry for prosecuting the ATS officers or any other officers under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. ‘The inquiry as per grievances of accused…is limited to the extent whether or not he was compelled, coerced and forced to give a confessional statement by ATS officers or any other police officers as alleged by him,’ the judge said.
On July 13, 2011, bombs exploded at Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar and a bus stop near Dadar kabutarkhana, killing 27 people. In Jan 2012, ATS arrested Naqi Shaikh, Nadeem Akhtar Shaikh, Kanwarnain Pathreja and Haroon Rasheed Naik for allegedly being part of the conspiracy.

In 2012, Shaikh submitted before Bombay HC that the ATS had falsely implicated him in the case and there was no evidence against him. He further said that on March 14, 2012, he was produced before the magistrate where he said that he did not want to give any statement. Shaikh alleged that the ATS took him out of court, obtained his signatures on some paper and in jail he was assaulted. He alleged he was threatened that if he did not give a statement as per the ATS, he would be further assaulted and his family implicated in case.