The Supreme Court today deferred the hearing for two weeks on the bail plea of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who is facing charges under MCOCA for her alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast. The petition,which was listed for hearing before a bench comprising Justices J M Panchal and Gyan Sudha Mishra,was adjourned as Pragyas counsel Sushil Balwada wanted it. Pragya has filed the petition challenging the denial of bail by the Bombay High Court on March 12. He said Thakur will also file a petition against the July 19 decision of the High Court restoring the charges under stringent anti-organised crime law MCOCA. The High Court had ordered that Pragya and ten other accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case will face trial under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) and had quashed the decision of the special court which had dropped the charges under the special law. Among the other high-profile accused in the case is former Lt Col S P Purohit. The trial of the case will take place at a special MCOCA court. The accused are currently lodged in Nasik Central Prison. Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29,2008,at Malegaon,a communally-sensitive textile town in Maharashtra. The probe into the blast has brought into focus some right-wing Hindu groups.
