HC grants bail to another accused

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday, granted bail to retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case.

The division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Sadhana Jadhav granted bail to the retired army officer on the ground of parity, since all other accused people in the case have been granted bail either by the high court or by the apex court. The bench therefore ordered Major Upadhyay to be released on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and surety of the same amount. National Investigating Agency (NIA) counsel Sandesh Patil opposed the bail plea pointing out that Upadhyay had played an important role in hatching the conspiracy for the blasts.

He attended several meetings of the Abhinav Bharat group and “we have video recordings to prove his presence in some of such meetings,” Patil said. The judges, however, felt that they had no option but to release Upadhyay on bail on grounds of parity. They inquired if Upadhyay had played larger role in the blast case than that of the prime accused Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, whom the Supreme Court granted bail last month. Upadhyay’s lawyer answered in the negative.

He also told the court that on September 19, the trial court had granted bail to two others accused in the case — Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi — on grounds of parity.

In its charge sheet, the NIA has claimed that Upadhyay was a member of the right wing group Abhinav Bharat and that he attended conspiracy meetings in which the blast was planned. Upadhyay, in his plea argued that the recordings of these meetings merely covered discussions on Abhinav Bharat and nothing on the blast.