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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 31, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – A special National Investigation Agency Court Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case. Special Judge A.K. Lahoti said that prosecution failed to bring any "cogent evidence" and, therefore, it requires the court to extend the benefit of doubt to all the accused. On Thakur, who is better known as Sadhvi Pragya, Judge Lahoti said that the prosecution failed to prove that the bike on which the bomb was allegedly strapped belonged to her. 

 

"The serial number of the chassis (of the bike) was not completely recovered by the forensic experts and therefore the prosecution failed to prove that the bike in fact belonged to her (Thakur). Moreover, Thakur had become a sanyasi and had left all material things two years before the blast," said Judge Lahoti. 

 

On charges against Purohit, the court said that it did not find any evidence to prove that he sourced royal demolition explosives from Kashmir and assembled the bomb. Further, the court dismissed prosecutions' allegations that there was conspiracy between all the seven accused.

 

The court noted the defects in the prosecution's evidence owing to the police's failure to secure the spot of blast. "Upon comprehensive evaluation, the prosecution has failed to bring any cogent evidence and the evidence is riddled with inconsistencies," said the court.

 

In 2008, a bomb exploded near a mosque in Malegaon, Nashik district, of Maharashtra, killing 10 and injuring over 100 people. Thereafter, a case was filed by the Azad Nagar police station, but later re-registered by the anti-terrorism squad and charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act were applied against the accused. In 2011, the Ministry of Home Affairs directed the National Investigation Agency to take up further investigation into the case.

 

In 2016, the National Investigation Agency filed its second supplementary chargesheet and dropped charges of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Thakur, Purohit and others. Thereafter, in 2017, the court dropped Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act charges and charged the accused under Sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. All the accused were currently out on bail.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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