2008 Malegaon blast case: Special NIA court starts final hearing
Final hearing in 2008 Malegaon blast case commences, with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and army officers among prime accused. Prosecution alleges Hindu right-wing involvement.
MUMBAI: A special National Investigating Agency (NIA) court on Thursday commenced the final hearing in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, in which former BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and former army officers Ramesh Upadhyay and Prasad Shrikant Purohit are among the prime accused.
The prosecution summarised the main allegations against the seven accused, saying the motorcycle on which the bomb was planted was traced to Thakur and the meetings to plan the blast were organised through Abhinav Bharat, a Hindu right-wing organisation allegedly floated by Purohit in 2006.
Six persons were killed and 101 injured in the blast near Hamidia Masjid in the communally sensitive town of Malegaon in Maharashtra on September 29, 2008. The Anti-Terrorism Squad, which took over the investigation in October 2008, suspected the role of Hindu extremists in the case and Hemant Karkare, then ATS chief, had publicly expressed concern over Hindu right-wing groups and individuals like Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, retired major Ramesh Upadhyay, and serving army officer Lt Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit indulging in terror activities.
While Karkare was killed during the 26/11 terror attack, the NIA, which took over the Malegaon blast investigation in April 2011 on the directions of the ministry of home affairs named eleven suspects in the chargesheet, including Thakur, Upadhyay and Purohit. Four of the suspects were subsequently discharged by the NIA court and charges were framed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code involving conspiracy and murder against the remaining seven accused – they included Thakur, Upadhyay, Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, and Sudhakar Dwivedi.
On Thursday, the prosecution submitted that the blast was orchestrated with the intention “to cause disruption of supplies and services essential to the community” and “to create communal rift and endanger the internal security of the state”. Special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal submitted that the Malegaon blast was part of a larger conspiracy focussed on taking revenge against Muslims by setting off bombs in Muslim-dominated areas, and the same was discussed by Purohit, Dwidedi and others during a meeting held in Bhopal.
The special prosecutor pointed out that the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) found remnants of highly explosive substances in samples collected from the blast site. Though the LML Freedom motorcycle on which the bomb was planted had a fake registration, the original registration number was ascertained and Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was identified and traced as the owner of the vehicle, he submitted.
The prosecution had closed its evidence against the seven accused in September 2023 after examining 323 witnesses. The court subsequently recorded the statements of the seven accused under section 313 of Criminal Procedure Code. Purohit and Chaturvedi examined witnesses in their defense and the examination of defense witnesses was concluded on Tuesday.