The acquittal of 12 men in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings ~ an attack that claimed 187 lives and injured over 800 ~ demands not just legal introspection but moral and institutional reflection. Nearly two decades after the tragedy, the courts have declared that the prosecution “utterly failed” to establish the guilt of those once convicted and sentenced to death or life imprisonment. What does this say about the credibility of our investigative and prosecutorial systems, and more importantly, about the cost of justice denied or miscarried? For years, these men languished in jail, with one of them even dying during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their conviction in 2015 was based on confessions and evidence now found unreliable or inadequately handled.

The High Court’s decision, spread across a 667-page judgment, pointed out glaring deficiencies: key witness testimonies questioned, confessions contested, and critical forensic material not preserved in........

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