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2008 Malegaon blast: Bombay HC issues notices to NIA, Pragya Singh Thakur and other acquitted accused in appeal by victims’ kin
A special court in July acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, in the Malegaon blast case.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the BJP MP from Bhopal, has been acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case. (Express)
The Bombay High Court Thursday issued notices to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the acquitted accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. The court was hearing an appeal filed by relatives of the blast victims challenging a special court verdict that acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit.
Six people were killed and over 100 were injured on September 29, 2008, when an explosive device went off near a mosque at Malegaon in Maharashtra’s Nashik district.
On July 31, Special Judge A K Lahoti cleared Thakur, Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi of all charges, including criminal conspiracy and murder under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
On Thursday, a division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad passed the order on an appeal filed by father, brother, son, uncle and father-in-law of the victims, including Nisar Ahmed Haji Sayyed Bilal, Shaikh Liyaqat Mohiuddin, Shaikh Ishaque Shaikh Yusuf, Usman Khan Ainullah Khan, Mushtaque Shah Haroon Shah, and Shaikh Ibrahim Shaikh Supdo.
On Tuesday, the high court sought to know whether the appellants, who are family members of the six deceased victims, were examined as witnesses during the trial. The bench had remarked it was “not an open gate” for everyone to file an appeal against acquittal.
The lawyer representing them informed the high court on Thursday that one of them was an intervenor in the trial before the special court, and four other appellants were examined during the trial; therefore, they were competent to file an appeal against the said verdict.
The high court then issued notice to the acquitted accused, which will be served at their present addresses disclosed in the memo of party-respondents in the appeal and also issued notice to the NIA. The court also asked Advocate Mateen Shaikh for the appellants to take steps related to the furnishing of the required documents and supporting past judgments within two weeks. The high court will hear the appeal after six weeks.
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The appeal, filed, sought directions from the high court to quash and set aside the July 31 verdict, and to convict the accused persons. The NIA, which probed the case, has not yet challenged the special court verdict before the high court.
The appellants also claimed that “the NIA was introduced only to weaken the case and give benefit to accused persons”.
The appeal further claimed that the impugned July 31 judgement of the special court designated under the NIA Act was “not maintainable on facts as well as in law” and it was passed “contrary to settled position of law with regard to the appreciation of the evidence and hence the same is required to be set aside and quashed as bad in law”.
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