BJP MP Pragya Thakur Withdraws Plea Seeking Discharge In Malegaon Blast Case After Bombay High Court Says Trial At Advanced Stage

BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and two other accused in the Malegaon 2008 blast case withdrew their petitions pending before the Bombay High Court today, seeking to be discharged from the case. A division bench led by Justice AS Gadkari allowed them to withdraw their petitions. The judge earlier remarked that the trial had reached a very advanced stage for their pleas to be considered. The petitions withdrawn include discharge appeals filed by Pragya Singh Thakur and Sameer Kulkarni against the Special NIA court order refusing to discharge them in 2017. Accused Col Prasad Purohit also withdrew two out of three petitions filed by him. While one of the petitions alleged that the sanction under UAPA was defective, the other plea alleged that no sanction under section 197 (2) of the CrPC was taken. His third discharge appeal which also cites the absence of a sanction under section 197(2) of the CrPC was argued on Monday and Tuesday and is reserved for orders. The victim's intervention applications filed in the appeals were also withdrawn. While Advocate Prashant Maggu appeared for Thakur, Advocate Neela Gokhale and Viral Babar appeared for Purohit, Senior Counsel B A Desai, Advocates Shahid Nadeem and Kritika Agarwal appeared for victims. Over 289 witnesses have been examined before the Special NIA Court so far and over 25 of them have been declared hostile. Six persons were killed and around 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a golden LML Freedom motorcycle registered in the name of BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008. While the case was initially investigated by the ATS, the NIA took over investigations and considerably watered down the charges against the accused. Thakur was the first person to be arrested in the case. The trial court, while considering her discharge plea, took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by both the agencies – the ATS and NIA. It observed, "The investigation report filed by the NIA [which suggested dropping charges against Thakur] has not wiped out, directly or impliedly, the initial investigation concluded by the ATS. The investigation report filed by the ATS is also required to be considered along with the report of NIA." While refusing to discharge Thakur, the court said, "Thakur had knowledge about involvement of her motorcycle in the blast and her dissatisfaction about causing fewer casualties. Hence, it is difficult to accept the submission on behalf of Thakur that she had no concern with the present crime, as she had been exonerated by the NIA." Thakur and Purohit have been charged with murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony on him.

BJP MP Pragya Thakur Withdraws Plea Seeking Discharge In Malegaon Blast Case After Bombay High Court Says Trial At Advanced Stage

Sharmeen Hakim & Amisha Shrivastava

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