Family members of victims of the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast approached the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, challenging the acquittal of all seven accused in the case, including former BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and retired Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit.
So far, the Maharashtra state government has not challenged their acquittals before the high court.
The families of 2008 Malegaon blast victims Nisar Ahmed Haji Syed Bilal, Sheikh Liaquat Mohiuddin, Sheikh Ishaq, Sheikh Yousaf, Usman Khan, Ainullah Khan, Mushtaq Shah, Haroon Shah, and Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh have filed the appeal in the Bombay High Court through the Jamiat Ulema Maharashtra (Arshad Madani) Legal Aid Committee, which represents victims in the case.
The appeal by the family members of blast victims was filed in the Bombay High Court through Advocate Mateen Shaikh. The appeal seeks to set aside acquittals of all the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts. The appeal has also sought re-examination of key witnesses and missing evidence, which the victims allege was deliberately excluded or suppressed by a compromised prosecution.
On July 31, a special NIA court acquitted all seven accused, stating that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
NIA Court’s Special Judge Abhay Lahoti had acquitted former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur alias Swami Purnachetanand Giri; former Military Intelligence official retired Lt Col Prasad Purohit; Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey alias Swami Amrutanand Devtirth, a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya; retired Major Ramesh Upadhyaya, Sameer Kulkarni alias Chanakya Sameer; Ajay alias Raja Rahirkar, and Sudhakar Onkarnath Chaturvedi alias Chanakya Sudhakar, citing “lack of evidence”.
Acquitting the accused, NIA Court’s Special Judge Abhay Lahoti stated that “The prosecution proved that a blast occurred in Malegaon but failed to prove that the bomb was placed in that motorcycle,” the judge noted, adding that the prosecution could not prove that the LML Freedom motorbike belonged to Pragya Singh and there is no evidence of storing or assembling explosives at Lt Col Purohit’s residence”.
Accordingly, charges against the accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code, as well as the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were dropped.
The Special NIA court had also directed the Maharashtra government to provide compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those killed and Rs 50,000 to those injured in the incident.
The accused had faced trial under Section 16 (committing a terrorist act) and Section 18 (conspiring to commit a terrorist act) of the UAPA and under Indian Penal Code Section 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), Section 302 (murder), Section 307 (attempt to murder), Section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt), and Section 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups), besides other sections of the Arms Act and the Explosives Act.