2008 Malegaon Blast: Bombay High Court Questions Appeal By Victims Families, Asks If They Testified During Trial

While hearing the appeal filed by the victims of the 2008 Malegaon Blast, who have challenged the acquittal of former BJP MP Pragya Thakur, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and other accused from the case, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday clarified that it will entertain the plea only if the appellants have been witnesses in the trial. The appeal has been preferred by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal along with Shaikh Liyaqat Mohiuddin, Shaikh Ishaque Shaikh Yusuf, Usman Khan Ainullah Khan, Mushtaque Shah Haroon Shah and Shaikh Ibrahim Shaikh Supdo through advocate Abdul Mateen Shaikh.A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad noted that the appellants, who have filed the appeal were the family members of those who died or were left injured in the blast that shook Malegaon town, which is nearly 200 km away from Mumbai."Were any of you witnesses in the trial? Show us if you were witnesses," CJ Chandrashekhar asked advocate Shaikh, who tried to take the bench through the case papers.However, Shaikh pointed out that Nisar Bilal lost his son in the blast. To this, the Chief Justice orally said,"If your son had died you should have been the witness in the case. What is the reason that you didn't examine yourself? It cannot be an open gate for all (to challenge the judgment)."Notably, the special court while acquitting all the accused, held that the prosecution failed to prove that the bike which exploded belonged to Pragya Thakur. It further stated that the right-wing leader had become a 'Sadhvi' at least 2 years before the blast and renounced the 'material world.' It further found no cogent material against her or any other accused.About planting of RDX at co-accused Col. Purohit's residence, Court had said that there was no material on record about the storage of explosives. The Court further stated that there is no evidence to the effect that Abhinav Bharat, an organisation founded by Pragya Thakur and Col. Purohit, used its funds for terror activities.The judgment in this case was reserved on April 19, 2025, after the trial was commenced in the year 2018. The trial in this case, which has major political overtones, was conducted against seven accused including former BJP MP Thakur, Col. Prasad Purohit, Major (retd.) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.In the appeal, the victims, with regards to the LML motorcycle, have argued that the trial court wrongly relied on the fact that there was no evidence of the visits made by the ATS officers to Surat to enquire into Pragya's motorcycle."Irrespective of the record of ATS officers' visit, the evidence of PW-261, PW-279 and RTO officer PW-256 Jitendrasinh Narubhai Vaghela is sufficient to conclude that the bike found at the scene belonged to Pragya Thakur. There is no evidence produced by her to prove that she had given away the LML motorcycle purchased in her name, or that it had been stolen. Despite this, her uncorroborated claim that she had long parted with her bike, as well as the opinion (without evidence) of PW-321 was relied upon by the Trial Court to hold that she cannot be connected to the bike used in the blasts," the appeal reads.As regards Purohit, the victims have stated that he has in his testimony admitted attending the 'conspiracy meetings' in the official duty but the trial court failed to appreciate this crucial piece of evidence. Furthermore, it is submitted that several defence witnesses (Purohit's superiors) stated on oath that he was attending conspiracy meetings and gathering intelligence but, none of them had deposed that he was reporting to them. "It has come before the Trial court he was neither deployed by his senior officer for attending meeting as official duty nor was he sending any report to senior officer with respect of that meeting," the plea says.The blast took place on September 29, 2008 with an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle was exploded near a mosque in the town, located about 200 km from Mumbai. The case was initially investigated by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) under slain cop Hemant Karkare. It had filed a chargesheet in January 2009 against all the 12 accused including Thakur and Purohit, who were arrested months after the blast.However, the case was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2011, which filed its supplementary chargesheet on May 13, 2016.The ATS version alleged that Thakur and Purohit, the founder of Abhinav Bharat, a right wing organisation, along with other accused, hatched a conspiracy to take 'revenge' and 'terrorise' the Muslim community. It further stated that there were several 'conspiracy meetings' that took place in Bhopal, Indore and other places.According to the ATS, Thakur had provided a motorcycle, which was used for executing the blast. The said motorcycle, the ATS said was registered in Thakur's name.In its charge sheet, the ATS had levelled several charges including the...

2008 Malegaon Blast: Bombay High Court Questions Appeal By Victims Families, Asks If They Testified During Trial

Narsi Benwal

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