Seventeen years after six people were killed and over 101 were injured in a powerful bomb blast in Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in Maharashtra, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai delivered its verdict: acquitting all seven accused.
Among them were some of the most controversial names to be linked to right-wing extremism in India—Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a former BJP MP from Bhopal, and Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, a military intelligence officer at the time of his arrest. The court cited a lack of evidence and granted all the accused the benefit of the doubt.
The blast took place on September 29, 2008, near Bhikku Chowk, during the Islamic month of Ramzan, and just before the Hindu festival of Navratri. A bomb fitted to a motorcycle exploded in a crowded Muslim locality, killing six and maiming many more. The motorcycle was traced to Pragya Singh Thakur, triggering what became one of India’s most high-profile and politically charged terror investigations.
But for the families who lost loved ones that evening, Thursday’s verdict brought not closure—but fresh anguish.
“He just went for tea. Ten hours later, he was gone.”
Usman Khan Aynullah Khan still remembers the blur of sirens, screams, and panic. His 22-year-old nephew, Irfan Khan Ziaullah Khan, had parked his auto-rickshaw near Bhikku Chowk and stepped into a hotel for a cup of tea when the bomb detonated.
“His back was completely torn apart. We first took him to Farhan Hospital, then Nashik, and finally to JJ Hospital in Mumbai. He fought for ten hours but didn’t survive,” says Khan, his voice laced with exhaustion from both grief and years of waiting.
“What hurts even more is how Muslims were treated. First, they were labelled as terrorists and thrown into jail for 15–17 years. Now, the court says the accused are innocent. So, who killed Irfan? Who killed the others? Why were Muslims targeted at all?”
Khan says the people of Malegaon are rallying around the Kul Jamaat-ul-Tanzim, a federation of Muslim organisations. “An individual can’t fight such a huge case alone. We will go to the Supreme Court. The government must back the search for real accountability. Otherwise, this isn't justice—it’s a travesty.”
Farheen Liyaquat's father, too, echoes the sentiments of the victims as he lost his own daughter that fateful day. She had stepped out that evening to buy pav. Her father, Shaikh Liyaqat Moinuddin, who lived just behind Bhikku Chowk in a tarpaulin-roofed home, heard the blast and ran out.
“Our house shook. People were running, screaming. Someone said a girl was lying there, hurt. My wife went to Wadia Hospital and came back pale. She said, ‘It’s Farheen.’ I went too... but I couldn’t even recognise her face,” he recalls, his voice breaking.
The pain of losing his daughter hasn’t diminished with time. And now, he says, the court’s decision feels like betrayal.
“This verdict is wrong. Completely wrong. We will go to the Supreme Court. There was evidence. The blast happened. People died. My daughter died. So how can the court say there’s no one responsible?” he asks.
For Nisar Ahmad, whose nephew Syed Azhar died in the blast, the 17-year wait has only deepened his distrust in the system.
“We’ve gone from Malegaon to Nashik to Mumbai in search of justice,” he says. “And today, after all that, we are told there’s no one to blame? That is not acceptable.”
Standing outside the court after the verdict, he made it clear this wasn’t a communal issue. “We are all brothers—Hindus, Muslims, everyone. We don’t want revenge. We want justice. And if we didn’t get it here, we will go to the High Court. We will go to the Supreme Court.”
We need systemic safeguards to prevent such miscarriages of justice. The state must be held accountable for the years lost by these men. A writ petition should be filed for compensation of the years wasted," advocate Vasant Bansode, Bombay High Court, tells THE WEEK.
Now, with the verdict in, some see closure. Others see a gaping void, of unanswered questions and institutional failure.