Verdict in 2008 Malegaon blast likely today, ex-MP Pragya Thakur, former army officers among accused

A special NIA court is set to deliver a verdict on the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, involving alleged Hindu extremists and resulting in six deaths.

MUMBAI: Nearly 17 years after a bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded in a crowded junction in the city of Malegaon in Nashik district, killing six people and injuring 101 others, a special court for cases under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to pronounce its verdict in the case on Thursday.

Former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur is one of the accused in the case. (HT Photo)

This was the first terror attack in the country in which a group of alleged Hindu extremists, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur (55) and a serving army officer, Lt Col Prasad Purohit (53), were prosecuted. The blast took place on September 29, 2008, during the month of Ramadan, in a Muslim-dominated area in Malegaon.

The others prosecuted in the case include retired army officer Ramesh Shivaji Upadhyay (73), Pune-based businessman Samir Sharad Kulkarni (53), Purohit’s close associates Ajay Eknath Rahirkar (56) and Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi (53), and Sudharkar Dhar Dwivedi, also known as Swami Amrutanand Devtirth (56), a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya.

The trial, which started in 2018, concluded in April 2025, and the case was reserved for judgement.

In its final arguments, the NIA had submitted that the blast in Malegaon, a town with a sizeable Muslim population, was orchestrated to terrorise a section of the Muslim community, disrupt essential services, create communal tensions, and threaten the state’s internal security.

The charges comprised various sections under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code related to terrorism, criminal conspiracy, murder, and promoting enmity between religious groups.

Following the blast, the state government had entrusted the investigation of the case to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). The state agency eventually arrested Thakur, a native of Lahar in the Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, and two of her accomplices, after finding that the motorcycle used in the blast belonged to her.

The ATS also found that the blast was the handiwork of an extreme right-wing group led by Purohit, Upadhyay and Dwivedi. In its charge sheet, the agency claimed that Purohit, who at the time served in the Indian Army’s Military Intelligence unit, had in February 2007 formed Abhinav Bharat, an organisation with an intention to convert India into a Hindu rashtra named Aryawart—a nation only for Hindus.

The organisation had allegedly held several meetings across the country in which they discussed increasing “jihadi” activities by Muslims and expressed strong anti-Muslim sentiments. According to the ATS, in one such meeting held in Bhopal in April 2008, Purohit suggested carrying out a bomb blast in Malegaon to take revenge for atrocities committed by Muslims on Hindus. Thakur, as per the ATS, quickly responded by offering to provide people for carrying out the blast, for which RDX was allegedly supplied by Purohit.

On January 20, 2009, the ATS arrested 11 people and filed a charge sheet against them and two wanted planters—Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, both associated with Thakur. The agency invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) due to the involvement of Rakesh Dhawde, an accused who was linked to previous blast cases. The agency later also arrested Pravin Takkalaki, an alleged close aide of Purohit, and filed a supplementary charge sheet against him.

However, in April 2011, the case was transferred to the NIA, a specialised federal agency established after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack to handle terrorism-related cases with national ramifications. The ATS had also faced criticism for alleged procedural flaws, including claims of coerced witness statements, planting of evidence, and misuse of MCOCA.

In May 2016, the NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet in the case, exonerating Thakur and five other accused, and recommending their discharge from the case. The agency said it found no evidence linking Thakur directly to the blast, adding that the motorcycle registered in her name was in the possession of absconding accused Kalsangra before the attack.

The NIA also dropped MCOCA charges against all the accused, citing its questionable application by the ATS. It found flaws in the ATS’s investigation, describing it as filled with “lacunae” or gaps. It said that some of the confessions recorded by the state agency, such as that of Chaturvedi’s, were likely obtained through torture and were unreliable.

Accordingly, the special NIA court in December 2017 dropped MCOCA charges against all the accused, but retained charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code. The court discharged Kalsangra, Sahu, and Takkalaki from the case, but refused to discharge the remaining seven arrested accused, including Thakur, and two wanted accused. The court refused to discharge Thakur, citing her attendance at meetings where the blast was discussed, such as one in Bhopal in April 2008.

While Thakur continued to be on trial, she secured bail in the case and even contested the 2019 general elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, winning the Bhopal constituency.

The September 2008 bomb blast was the second terror attack in Malegaon in two years. Earlier, on September 8, 2006, on the occasion of Shab­-e­-Barat, a day of religious importance for Muslims, four blasts took place near a mosque complex in Malegaon, in which 31 people were killed and 312 were seriously injured. This case is still unsolved, with initial arrests of Muslim suspects overturned and later accusations against Hindu extremists still under consideration by the trial court.