SC invokes Article 142 to acquit POCSO convict after victim marries him
However, the apex court clarified that the relief was being granted in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and would not serve as a precedent.
Terming the acquittal of all the accused in the Malegaon blast case “disappointing”, AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi questioned whether the BJP governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra will move the Supreme Court with an appeal for a stay on the acquittals.
Owaisi once again alleged a “shoddy” investigation deliberately carried out by the country’s premier agency, the NIA and Maharashtra’s ATS, and wondered if the investigators would be held accountable after the accused were acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence.
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After all the seven accused in the Malegaon blast of 2008, including former BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Colonel Prasad Srikant Purohit, were let off by the court, Owaisi said, “A deliberately shoddy investigation/prosecution is responsible for the acquittal.”
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Questioning who had killed the six people, he said, “17 years after the blast, the court has acquitted all of the accused for lack of evidence. Will the Modi and Fadnavis governments appeal the judgment the way they swiftly demanded a stay in the Mumbai train blast acquittals? Will Maharashtra’s secular political parties demand accountability?”
He said in 2016, then prosecutor Rohini Sailan had gone on record saying NIA had asked her to “go soft” on the accused. “Remember, in 2017, NIA had tried to get Sadhvi Pragya acquitted. The same person would go on to be a BJP MP in 2019,” said Owaisi.
He also referred to slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare for unearthing the Malegaon blast conspiracy.
Lashing out at the NDA government at the Centre, the Hyderabad MP said, “Will NIA/ATS officers be held accountable for their faulty investigation? I think we know the answer. This is ‘the tough on terror’ Modi government. The world will remember, it made a terror accused a member of Parliament.”
Meanwhile, controversial MLA Raja Singh, who has recently quit the BJP, welcomed the acquittal while lashing out at Congress, accusing it of conspiring against Hindutva supporters. “This is not just a verdict but a victory of righteousness and truth. The false allegations against Sanatanis have come to an end… Congress’s despicable conspiracy has been completely unmasked,” he asserted.
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