In a major relief to four accused in the 2006 Malegaon Bomb Blast case, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed and set aside the order by which a special court had framed charges against them.
A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Chandak pronounced the order in the appeals filed by Rajendra Chaudhary, Lokesh Sharma, Dhan Singh and Manohar Ram Singh Narwaria.
A detailed copy of the order is yet to be made available.
The judges had earlier opined that a "prima facie" case was made out by the appellants for the High Court to interfere with the order framing charges against them by the special NIA court.
Notably, this 2006 Malegaon blast case has been pending before the special NIA court and has seen several twists ever since it was registered. A blast took place near the Hamidia Masjid in Malegaon on September 8, 2006 just after the Friday prayers. A total of 37 persons died in the blasts which also injured over 300 citizens.
Initially, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested nine Muslim men for carrying out the blast near the Masjid. They spent at least 5 years in jail and were granted bail in 2011. Subsequently, in 2016, the special court discharged all the nine men with a finding that the prosecution evidence fell short to prosecute them.
Subsequently, the NIA arrested the four appellants, after Swami Aseemanand— an accused in several other blast case, allegedly confessed that right-wing groups had planted Bomb near the Masjid.
The four accused were given bail by the Bombay High Court in June 2019.
Case Title: Rajendra Chaudhary vs Union of India