No evidence: All 7 acquitted in '08 Malegaon blast case

Hindustan Times

01-08-2025

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday acquitted all the seven people charged in connection with a bomb blast in Maharashtra's Malegaon town in 2008, saying the evidence against them did not inspire confidence and that it would be unsafe to base convictions on these grounds. Former BJP MP Pragya Thakur, one of the seven acquitted in the case (PTI)
The high-profile order – which came nearly 17 years after six people were killed and 95 injured in the blast during the last namaz of the day at a public compound on September 29, 2008 – cleared former Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur, 55, and Lt. Col Prasad Purohit, 53, who was an officer with the Indian army.
'Terror has no religion, as no religion promotes violence,' said special NIA judge AK Lahoti while pronouncing the acquittal.
The five others who were exonerated, beside Thakur and Purohit, were retired army officer Ramesh Shivaji Upadhyay, 73, Pune-based businessman Samir Sharad Kulkarni, 53, Purohit's purported close associates Ajay Eknath Rahirkar, 56, and Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi, 53, and Sudharkar Dhar Dwivedi, also known as Swami Amritananda Devtirth, 56, a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya.
'Mere suspicion cannot take the place of real proof,' the court said, adding that in the absence of any evidence, the accused persons deserve the benefit of doubt.
In its order, the trial court said there was no evidence to show that Purohit had brought the RDX from Kashmir as claimed in the charge sheet. The court also found no evidence to prove that the bomb strapped to a motorcycle and seized from the spot belonged to Thakur.
'The sadhvi had become a sanyasi (ascetic) two years before the incident, and had distanced herself from all material possessions,' the court said while explaining why the two-wheeler's ownership could not be attributed to the former MP from Bhopal.
The accused thanked Lahoti and their lawyers, and Thakur said that she was able to survive the ordeal only because she was a 'sanyasi' (ascetic).
'This is not my victory. This is no individual's victory. This is the victory of bhagwa (saffron), bhagwan (god) and Hindutva,' she said after the court explained the verdict in Hindi.
Advocate Shahid Nadeem, who represented the blast victims, accused NIA of not prioritising their concerns, and said they would file an appeal in the high court after reviewing the judgment.
The politically sensitive case was part of a larger bouquet of terror incidents in the late 2000s dubbed by investigating agencies at the time as 'saffron terror' cases. Almost every one of those cases – including the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts, the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast and the 2007 Ajmer Sharif bombing – have since collapsed in court.
The verdict also sparked a political controversy with the BJP demanding an apology from the Congress, which was in power at the Centre and in the state when the blasts and the prosecution began.
Two RDX bombs strapped to the seat of an LML Freedom motorcycle went off during the 'eesha namaz' at 9.35pm on September 29, 2008 in the Muslim-dominated town, roughly 200km from Mumbai. Six died and 95 were injured.
This was the second terror attack in Malegaon. On September 8, 2006, on the day of Shab-e-Baraat, four bombs had gone off at the crowded Hamidia mosque complex killing 31 and injuring 312 others.
The blast was investigated by two different agencies – first by the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and then by the NIA from 2011.
According to the ATS, the blast was the handiwork of an extreme Right-wing group led by Purohit, Upadhyay and Dwivedi. In its charge sheet, the agency claimed that Purohit, who at the time served in the Indian Army's Military Intelligence unit, had in February 2007 formed Abhinav Bharat, an organisation with an intention to convert India into a Hindu rashtra named Aryavart. It also arrested Thakur, a native of Lahar in the Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, and two others in October 2008, alleging that the motorcycle belonged to her.
On January 20, 2009, the ATS arrested 11 people and filed a charge sheet, invoking the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). In April 2011, the case was transferred to NIA, a specialised federal agency established after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Throughout this time, the accused alleged that the ATS case was fabricated and their statements were coerced after torture.
In May 2016, NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet, exonerating Thakur and five other accused, and recommending their discharge from the case. NIA also dropped MCOCA charges against all the accused, citing its questionable application by the ATS.
The court order on Thursday junked the ATS's argument, holding that the charge of the conspiracy being hatched at meetings of Abhinav Bharat could not be proved as the witnesses had turned hostile. Forty prosecution witnesses turned hostile during the trial.
'Key witnesses pertaining to the conspiracy have not supported the prosecution,' said the special judge. The court said the material from the blast spot was collected in the absence of experts. The court also disregarded the charge that Abhinav Bharat had collected funds from the public and used it to further its illegal activities.
'It is true that Purohit was the trustee and (Ajay) Rahirkar was its treasurer. But the evidence on record shows that Purohit had used the funds for his personal work like construction of a house, payment of insurance premium etc. There is no evidence to show that the funds were used for terror activities and therefore UAPA was not applicable,' the court said, and further stated that invalid and defective sections of the UAPA had been applied in the case.
After the verdict was read out, celebrations broke out at the neighbourhoods of Thakur and Purohit. The BJP hailed the decision. 'The court verdict has exposed the conspiracy with supporting evidence. Congress leaders must now publicly apologise to Hindus for defaming them by associating them with so-called saffron terrorism,' said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The Congress criticised the BJP. 'They (the BJP) polarise everything, there was no good prosecution, good evidence was not collected, how should this matter be let go?' asked Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.