The special NIA court on Saturday reserved the Malegaon blast case for verdict following completion of trial almost 17 years after it shook the communally sensitive town in Maharashtra’s Nashik district.
Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town about 200 km from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008.
The prosecution on Saturday filed its final written arguments, with some citation marking the end of hearing in the case, after which Special Judge A K Lahoti adjourned the case to May 8 for judgment. During the course of trial the prosecution had examined 323 prosecution witnesses, of which 34 had turned hostile. Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, BJP leader Pragya Thakur, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni are facing trial under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The case was initially probed by the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad (ATS) before being transferred to NIA in 2011. The NIA, after taking over the case, had filed a chargesheet in 2016 giving a clean chit to Pragya Thakur and three other accused — Shyam Sahu, Praveen Takalki and Shivnarayan Kalsangra — saying it found no evidence against them and they should be discharged from the case.
The NIA court, however, absolved Sahu, Kalsangra and Takalki and ruled that Pragya Thakur will have to face trial. The special court, on October 30, 2018, framed charges against seven accused under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC).
They are facing trial under sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and under IPC sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups). Recording of the testimony of the prosecution witness was completed in September last year.
