Purohit, Sadhvi trial
hearing. Special NIA judge Vinod Padalkar, while framing charges against the accused, said: “All seven accused of Abhinav Bharat Sanghatna had conspired and conducted terrorist activities. You hatched the conspiracy between January 2008 and October 2008 with the intention of spreading terror in society.”
“You, along with absconding accused Sandip Dange and Ramji Kalsangra, had parked an LML Freedom motorbike loaded with RDX at Bhikku Chowk in front of a mosque due to which the explosion took place and six people died and 100 were injured. Therefore, you have been booked for hatching conspiracy, murder, aiding and abetting in a murder and also causing damage to public property,” said Mr Padalkar.
Lt. Col. Purohit told the court he had not expected this, and said: “No one can doubt my honesty, integrity and service record. The UAPA should not have been invoked against me.”
Pragya Thakur, after the court proceedings, told reporters that the investigating agency had given her a “clean chit” in the case. “Despite that, charges have been framed against me. My struggle against this will continue. I will eventually win because I am right,” she said.
A bomb blast occurred at Malegaon Bhikku Chowk, killing six people and injuring 100 others on September 29, 2008. On December 27 last year, the special NIA court had dismissed pleas filed by Lt. Col. Purohit, Thakur and others seeking to be discharged from the case.
The NIA, after taking over the case, had filed a chargesheet in 2016 giving a clean chit to Thakur and three others — Shyam Sahu, Praveen Takalki and Shivnarayan Kalsangra — saying it had found no evidence against them and they should be discharged from the case.
The NIA court had, however, absolved only Sahu, Kalsangra and Takalki, and said Thakur would have to face charges. At that time, the special court had dropped the stringent charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act ( MCOCA) against the accused, but said they would face charges under the UAPA and sections of the IPC, including murder and criminal conspiracy.
The accused later challenged the validity of the UAPA against them.
Earlier this month, the special court had rejected their pleas challenging the applicability of UAPA against them. Lt. Col. Purohit had last week approached the Bombay high court challenging the lower court order.