CHARGES DROPPED AFTER 5 YRS IN JAIL

8 Muslim youths are set free in 2006 Malegaon blasts case

The charges against eight Muslim youths accused in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts case were on Monday dropped by a special court in Mumbai due to lack of evidence against them.

The accused were discharged by the Designated Judge of the MCOCA court nearly 10 years after the serial bomb blasts outside a Muslim cemetery at Malegaon on September 8, 2006, which had killed 37 people and left over 100 injured. The accused have already spent a minimum five years in jail since they were arrested.

The accused have alleged that they were tortured into making confessions by the police. "For 80 days I was subjected to third-degree torture and then forced to sign a false confession," Noor Ul Huda, one of the men discharged on Tuesday, told NDTV. Now 34 years old, Huda, said it was a huge relief to be exonerated by court; he said this as he described the "terrible ordeal" in prison.

The bombs, which were planted on two bicycles parked near a cemetery, had triggered loud explosions that were followed by a stampede. Nine accused were initially arrested in the case and charge sheeted by the Anti Terrorism Squad. One of them died while the case was pending. Later, the CBI, which took over the investigation, also confirmed the charges against them.

The NIA, which had taken over the investigation from the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), submitted that it had found no evidence to link the nine accused with the blasts,

paving the way for their discharge on Monday. The organisations suspected to be behind the blasts included Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Students Islamic Movement of India, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. All the accused, including some who were allegedly linked to the banned SIMI, had applied for bail and were subsequently freed on November 16, 2011. Malegaon, a sensitive Muslim-dominated town around 300 km northeast of Mumbai, was rocked by another blast on September 29, 2008, allegedly masterminded by certain Hindu fundamentalist groups. PTI/IANS