The Malegaon blast trial that stalled: Shared suspects, multiple probes, but no progress in 2006 case

Indian Express

5 hours ago

The 2008 Malegaon blast case, in which several accused were linked to extremist groups, concluded this week following the acquittal of all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, a parallel case from 2006 involving similarly placed suspects remains stalled in court.
Despite the National Investigation Agency (NIA) naming operatives of Hindu outfits in its 2013 chargesheet in the 2006 case, the trial of the four accused has made no progress since 2019. Two of the men named in the 2006 blasts, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, are also accused of having played a role in the 2008 blasts.
What ATS found
On September 8, 2006, four bombs exploded in Malegaon, three on the premises of Hamidia Masjid and Bada Kabrastan just after Friday prayers, and the fourth at Mushawarat Chowk, killing 31 people and injuring 312 persons.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which initiated the investigation, claimed that 13 Muslim men, some of whom had met at a conspiracy meeting during a wedding on May 6, 2006, conspired to carry out the blasts. Nine of these men, including Shabbir Masiullah, who was already in prison, were arrested for their role in the explosions.
Four accused who were never apprehended were also named for their role in the blast. The ATS accused them of making and planting the bombs. A subsequent supplementary chargesheet that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed in 2011 also named the same individuals.
The case was transferred to the NIA in 2011 after RSS activist Swami Aseemanand, who was then an accused in the Ajmer Sharif and Mecca Masjid blasts, told the magistrate in his statement in 2010 that the 2006 blasts were allegedly the handiwork of 'right-wing activist' Sunil Joshi and his men. The NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet in 2013, after which the nine Muslim men were discharged from the case in 2016. Seven of these men had earlier been released on bail in 2011, and two others, who were also named in the Mumbai train blasts, were released this year after being acquitted in the case.
NIA investigation
The NIA's 2013 chargesheet named seven men for carrying out the 2006 blast, including Manohar Narwaria, Rajendra Chaudhari, Dhan Singh Shiv Singh, Lokesh Sharma, and Sunil Joshi, who was killed in 2007. Three of the accused, including Kalsangra, Dange, and Ramesh Mahalkar, were never apprehended.
As per the NIA, a criminal conspiracy was undertaken at Bagli in Dewas District of Madhya Pradesh, where training in arms and assembling of bombs/IEDs was imparted under Joshi's supervision for committing 'terrorist acts in Muslim religious places'. Subsequently, four men carrying four bombs left from Indore and reached Malegaon on September 8, 2006.
The NIA claimed that Narwaria and Chaudhari, posing as Sumer Thakur and Badal Yadav respectively, purchased two bicycles from shopkeepers in Malegaon. Singh then placed one bag with two bombs on the bicycle that Chaudhari purchased. They both then went to Mushawarat Chowk, where Chaudhari was accused of placing one bomb/IED in a metallic box and fixing that box on the carrier of the bicycle. That bicycle was then parked near an electric pole. Chaudhari then placed a bag containing the other bomb on a tree inside Hamidia Masjid and Bada Kabrastan.
Kalsangra and Narwaria went to Hamidia Masjid and Bada Kabrastan with two bombs in a bag. A box containing one bomb was then fitted into their bicycle that was parked inside the mosque. Another bomb was kept in the bag and it was hung on the main gate of the Masjid. The NIA claimed that after planting the bombs in this manner, they went to Jalgaon and from there to Indore.
The accused, as per the NIA, were also alleged to have called up media houses and informed them that 'Dharmasena' had taken responsibility for the bomb blast at Malegaon. They were subsequently arrested in 2013, with some men, including Singh and Sharma, also being accused in the 2008 blast by the NIA.
Before the courts
In 2019, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Singh, Sharma, Narwaria, and Chaudhari in the 2006 case. The High Court said the men were in jail for over six years without the trial commencing and also said the trial court, which rejected their bail pleas, should have considered the entire record, including the chargesheets that the ATS and the CBI had filed..
Following their bail pleas, the men approached the trial court seeking discharge, pointing out the difference in the findings of the ATS/CBI and the NIA probes. With no hearing having taken place on the discharge applications in the past few years, the trial court proceedings are at a standstill. The lawyers for the accused submitted that the case be heard after the High Court decides on their plea to quash the case and another one challenging the discharge of the Muslim men.
The Maharashtra ATS, too, has challenged the decision to release the nine Muslim men and submitted that both sets of accused be put to trial. It had taken a stand in the Malegaon 2008 case that it would not be a party to the case as the NIA had taken over its probe, even as its investigation was called 'dubious' and its officers were accused of planting evidence. The last hearing on the appeals in the High Court took place in 2019.
While Singh and Sharma were also investigated by the NIA in the 2008 case when it took over in 2011, they were dropped as accused five years later after the agency claimed there was no proof against them. When it arrested Singh, the NIA had said that Kalsangra and Dange had instructed him to transport the motorcycle fitted with the explosive from Madhya Pradesh and hand it over to Kalsangra.