Nine years after RDX bombs ripped through seven trains on Western Railway, a special MCOCA court on Friday convicted 12 accused in the case.

One accused, Abdul Wahid Shaikh, was acquitted.

The trial in the case concluded in August 2014, leaving a little over a year for the pronouncement of the judgment. The court, presided by special judge Yatin D Shinde, issued production warrants to all 13 accused in the case.

As many as 187 people were killed and 817 injured in the seven blasts in first class compartments of suburban locals on July 11, 2006. In eight minutes starting from 6.23pm, bombs went off at or near the Khar Road, Bandra, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Borivli, Matunga and Mira Road stations.

The trial commenced in June 2007. But in a major hurdle that cost the case two years, the Supreme Court stayed the trial in February 2008 after one of the 13 accused, Kamal Ansari, said that the phrase 'promoting insurgency' in the definition of organized crime in MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) was unconstitutional. In April 2010, the apex court dismissed the petition, ordering the trial's resumption.

The arrests were made by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS). The ATS said Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI and the Lashkar-e-Taiba had planned the blasts.

In a substantial development in December 2012, the accused won a significant order from the Bombay high court to access call data records (CDRs), which pointed out that four of the accused planters were not in the vicinity of Churchgate station or the blast sites on the day of the attack.

The lengthy trial saw the deposition of 188 prosecution witnesses, among whom were commuters who were on the ill-fated trains. The prosecution's case and final statements of the accused were recorded in 2012. The prosecution in its final arguments reiterated that pressure cookers were used to pack the bombs. The prosecution also examined police officers of the rank deputy commissioner (DCP), many of whom recorded the state ments and confessions of the accused.

The prosecution heavily relied on the confession statements to prove the complicity of the accused, but the latter have maintained that the confessions were forced and are fake, and cannot be considered as evidence. Defence lawyer Wahab Khan, who completed final arguments after 34 days in July, had claimed that the statements were identical in parts, which should raise doubts about their authenticity. The defence also alleged that the apex court's guidelines were not followed when the DCPs recorded statements.

The prosecution had alleged that accused Sajid Ansari had made the timers for the explosives and a day before the blasts he was at the home of another accused in Govandi. But the defence advocate told the court that on July 8, 9 and 10, 2006, Ansari was in Jogeshwari, Malad and Mira Road and could not have been in Govandi.

With respect to another accused, Asif Khan, the defence advocate pointed out that Khan's CDR and alleged confession showed contra dictory locations. "The prosecution claimed Asif was either assembling the explosives or was near the blast sites, but he was actually at home in Mira Road or at his workplace," advocate Khan had argued in his defence.

Because the investigation was mired in controversy, it remains to be seen if victims and their families get justice after a long wait. Dahisar-based Kewal Waghela was only 11 years old in 2006 when his father Ashok, a chartered accountant, was killed in the train blast at Khar.

Almost choking when asked recently by TOI how life has fared for his family — mother Yogita and younger sister — Kewal, who is following in his father's footsteps by studying for CA, said, "Such feelings can never be expressed in words. The loss will always be irreparable. We have felt it through the last nine years, although thanks to my mother, we have coped well."