PUROHIT, PRAGYA TO FACE TRIAL
Won’t be charged under MCOCA
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and six others accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case will now face trial with a special court in Mumbai rejecting their pleas seeking that they be discharged from the case.
The court, however, dropped provisions under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against all the accused.
The court also exonerated three accused persons -- Shyam Sahu, Shivnarayan Kalsangra and Praveen Takalki -- of all charges and discharged them from the case.
Apart from Sadhvi and Purohit, those who will face trial in the case are: Sudhakar Dwivedi, Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Ajay Rahirkar.
These accused persons will now face trial under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for charges of conspiring and committing/organising a terror act. They will also be charged under relevant sections of the IPC for charges of criminal conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder, and causing hurt to others.
Special Judge SD Tekale was hearing the discharge pleas filed by seven of the 13 accused persons in the case, and the NIA's plea for framing of charges.
The judgement is particularly significant since, in May 2016, the NIA had filed a chargesheet absolving Sahu, Takalki, Shivnarayan Kalsangra, and Pragya Thakur saying that it had not found any evidence against them and that they should be discharged from the case. It had gone on to say that that there was no evidence of Thakur having ever been part of the conspiracy meetings held before the blast and that though the motorcycle used in the blast had once belonged to her, she had sold it off to someone else much before the blast and, thus, had had no knowledge of the incident.
While the special court allowed the discharge of Sahu, Takalki, and Kalsangra, in rejecting Pragya Thakur's plea, it observed that it found it "difficult to accept" the NIA's and Thakur's claims that the latter had no knowledge of the conspiracy. Pragya Thakur was arrested in October that year and Lt Col Purohit in November. The two were accused of plotting the blasts as part of a plan by Hindu right wing group, Abhinav Bharat.
The blast in Malegaon occurred on September 29, 2008. The blast took place by an “improvised explosive device” fitted upon an LML Freedom motorcycle. Six persons were killed and 101 injured in the blast that was probed initially by the Maharashtra ATS and then, taken over by the NIA in 2011. In August this year, Lt Col Purohit was granted bail by the Supreme Court after spending nine years in jail. The apex court said there several contradictions in the chargesheets filed by Maharashtra's Anti-Terror Squad and the National Investigation Agency, which took over the case in 2011. Pragya was also granted bail earlier in the year by the Bombay high court.
The judgement is particularly significant since, in May 2016, the NIA had filed a chargesheet absolving Sahu, Takalki, Shivnarayan Kalsangra, and Pragya Thakur saying that it had not found any evidence against them and that they should be discharged from the case. It had gone on to say that that there was no evidence of Thakur having ever been part of the conspiracy meetings held before the blast and that though the motorcycle used in the blast had once belonged to her, she had sold it off to someone else much before the blast and, thus, had had no knowledge of the incident.
While the special court allowed the discharge of Sahu, Takalki, and Kalsangra, in rejecting Pragya Thakur's plea, it observed that it found it "difficult to accept" the NIA's and Thakur's claims that the latter had no knowledge of the conspiracy. Pragya Thakur was arrested in October that year and Lt Col Purohit in November. The two were accused of plotting the blasts as part of a plan by Hindu right wing group, Abhinav Bharat.
The blast in Malegaon occurred on September 29, 2008. The blast took place by an “improvised explosive device” fitted upon an LML Freedom motorcycle. Six persons were killed and 101 injured in the blast that was probed initially by the Maharashtra ATS and then, taken over by the NIA in 2011.