A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday acquitted all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, including former BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and retired Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit. Delivering its verdict, the NIA court said that while the blast did take place, the prosecution failed to provide “cogent evidence” to prove their involvement.
“Terrorism has no religion because no religion can advocate violence. The court cannot convict anyone merely on perception and moral evidence; there has to be cogent evidence,” the court said while delivering the judgment.
After examining 323 prosecution witnesses and eight defence witnesses, the court reached its judgment that acquitted the accused of all charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act, and all other relevant laws.
The court mentioned in the verdict that the prosecution could not prove that explosives were stored and assembled at Colonel Purohit’s residence and placed in the motorcycle that allegedly belonged to Pragya Thakur.
“Prosecution proved that a blast occurred in Malegaon but failed to prove that the bomb was placed in that motorcycle,” news agency ANI quoted Judge Abhay Lohati as saying while pronouncing the verdict.
The court also questioned the flawed investigation and pointed out several discrepancies in the way the spot evidence was collected by the investigation officer.
“No sketch of the spot was done by the investigation officer while doing the panchnama. No fingerprint, dump data, or anything else was collected for the spot. The samples were contaminated, so reports can’t be conclusive and relied upon,” the court said.
The court also said that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) could not be applied to the case as the sanction for prosecution was not obtained in accordance with the rules.
“The UAPA will not be invoked in this case, as a sanction was not taken as per the rules. Both the sanction orders of the UAPA in the case are defective,” the court stated in its order.
”Moreover, the NIA court also found discrepancies in the list of the injured. The court has come to the conclusion that the injured people were not 101 but 95 only, and there was manipulation. In some medical certificates,” the court said.
The court also gave a clean chit to Colonel Purohit’s ‘Abhinav Bharat’ organisation, saying there was no evidence that the funds of the outfit were used for terror activities.
“Abhinav Bharat organisation was used as a common reference by the prosecution. There is no evidence that the money of the Abhinav Bharat was used for terror activities,” it noted.
Advocate Shahid Nadeem, representing the victims of the blast, said that they will challenge their acquittal in the High Court.