The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to four right-wing Hindu activists and accused in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case, seven years after they were arrested in the case.
The four accused — Dhan Singh, Lokesh Sharma, Manohar Narwaria and Rajendra Chaudhary — had moved the Bombay High Court in 2016, after a special NIA court had rejected their bail plea.
Granting bail to the four accused, a HC division bench of Justices Indrajit Mahanty and AM Badar ruled the four accused should furnish Rs 50,000 bail bond each and two sureties of same amount to get the bail. They ordered the four accused to remain present during the trial court until they were exempted.
"The petitions are allowed. The applicants shall be released on cash bail of Rs 50,000. They shall attend the special court on each day during the trial and shall not tamper with evidence or contact witnesses," the judges said.
In the triple blasts that rocked Bada Kabarasthan, Mushawra Chowk and Hamidiya Masjid at the powerloom town of Malegaon in north Maharashtra on September 8, 2006, 37 people were killed and 150 others injured.
The four accused had moved the high court after the NIA court had rejected their bail plea on June 6, 2016 on the ground that the evidence collected by the NIA prima facie showed that the four accused along with the absconding accused had prepared and planted bombs at three places in Malegaon on September 8, 2006.
“At this stage it appears to me that prima facie the evidence collected by NIA show that the accused along with absconding accused prepared bombs and planted it...... Bearing in mind the nature of the crime and the charges levelled against the accused persons, they do not deserve bail”, the NIA court judge had said in his June 6, 2016 order, rejecting the bail plea by the four accused.
Nine accused were initially tried for their alleged involvement in the 2006 Malegaon triple blasts. Of them, one of the accused Shabbir Ahmed died in 2015 during the pendency of the case before the special court, resulting in the abatement of the charges against him.
A special NIA court had on April 25, 2016 dropped the charges against the eight Muslim accused in the 2006 triple Malegaon blasts case, after taking cognizance of the submission made by the NIA that there was no evidence to prosecute the accused in the case.
The eight accused, who were discharged from the 2006 Malegaon triple blasts case, were: Noor-Ul-Hooda Samshudoha Ansari, Raees Ahmed, Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Faroqh Maghdumi, Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Zahid alias Zahid Ali, Asif Bashir Khan alias Junaid and Abrar Ahmed Saeed.
