The special NIA court on Saturday reserved the 2008 Malegaon blast case for judgment following completion of trial with final written submissions made by the prosecution.
The written notes of arguments filed by the prosecution on Saturday were taken on record, following which special judge A K Lahoti posted the matter for judgment. After the judgment is written in the next few months, it will be pronounced by the court. The court adjourned the case till May 8 for now.
Judge Lahoti was this week given an extension till August 31, after he was initially proposed to be transferred in June in the annual general transfers of judges.
Seven accused namely former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sudhakar Dhardwivedi were on trial facing charges, including criminal conspiracy and murder under IPC and sections of the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Seventeen years ago, on September 29, 2008, the blast at Malegaon town near Nashik killed six persons and injured over 100 others.
Initially, the probe was conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) led by slain officer Hemant Karkare, who was killed during the 26/11 terror attack. The ATS had arrested Thakur, claiming that her involvement was traced through an LML Freedom motorcycle, on which the bomb was allegedly planted by absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra. The others were subsequently arrested by the ATS, which claimed their involvement in the conspiracy to carry out the blast, planned allegedly to cause communal disharmony. It claimed that conspiracy meetings were held in various locations where the blast was planned.
The ATS filed two chargesheets in the case but in 2010 the probe was transferred to the newly formed federal agency, the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The agency continued with its probe in the case till 2016 when a supplementary chargesheet was filed.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
