NIA says won’t oppose Sadhvi bail in Malegaon Court rejects bail plea of 4 accused

In a relief to 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the prosecution on Monday informed the special NIA court that since it is relying on the chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency, it is not opposing the bail application filed by Ms Thakur.

Special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal on Monday informed special judge V. V. Patil that the prosecution has no objection to the Sadhvi getting bail and it is up to the court to decide on her bail application.

The NIA had recently filed a chargesheet in the Malegaon 2008 blast case in which it has said that while investigating the case they did not find sufficient material against the Sadhvi and a few other accused to prosecute them. Following this development, the Sadhvi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Pravin Takkalki filed bail applications and the special judge had asked the NIA to file a reply on their applications. The agency was asked to file its reply on Sadhvi’s bail by June 6 and on others applications by June 10. In the meantime, one of the victims, Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, has filed an intervention application opposing the bail plea. Mumbai, June 6: A special NIA court on Monday rejected the bail plea of four accused in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case, who had sought liberty after eight Muslim men accused in the case were discharged in April.

Special NIA judge V. V. Patil rejected the bail applications of Manor Singh, Rajendra Chaudhry, Dhan Singh and Lokesh Sharma who said in their plea that they were falsely implicated in the case and there was no evidence against them. Defence lawyers argued that many things NIA claimed to have recovered from the accused were easily available in the market. The prosecution, however, held that there was ample evidence against the accused, which is very serious in nature and so they should not be granted bail.

The judge said “at this stage it appears to me that prima facie the evidence collected by NIA show that the accused, along with absconding accused, prepared bombs and planted it and in its explosion over 31 died and 312 innocent persons were injured.”