A special court hearing cases probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) acquitted former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Thakur and other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, citing a lack of evidence.
The special NIA court is pronouncing the verdict almost 17 years after the blast. Initially probed by the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police, the NIA took over the probe in the case in 2011. The special court commenced hearing the matter in 2018, and the case was reserved for judgment in April 2019.
Six persons were killed and over 100 suffered injuries in the blast in the communally sensitive Malegaon town, located 200km from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008. A motorcycle strapped with explosives was blown up near a mosque in the communally sensitive town during the month of Ramadan. According to NIA, the blast, planned before the Navratri festival that year, was carried out to create fear in the minds of a section of the Muslim community.
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Seven accused, including BJP leader and former MP Pragya Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, faced trial in the case for charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code. Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni are the other accused in the case.
According to PTI, the charges against the accused comprised UAPA sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) and various IPC sections, including 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups).
