Court rejects 2008 Malegaon blast accused Pragya Thakur’s bail plea

A court set up to hear the 2008 Malegaon blast case on Tuesday rejected the bail application of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. The National National Investigation Agency, in its chargesheet filed on May 13, dropped all the charges against Pragya and five others citing lack of evidence.

A Mumbai court denied bail to Hindu leader Pragya Singh in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, roughly a month after the National Investigating Agency (NIA) cleared her of all charges for lack of evidence.

The court’s decision came after families of the blast victims objected to the bail plea, saying the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had gathered enough evidence to prosecute the Hindu leader.

On May 13, the NIA had told the court that it was dropping all charges in the case against Pragya and five others, revoking provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and alleging the ATS planted explosives on one of the accused.

The September 2008 blasts in the Muslim-majority Malegaon town killed six people and injured 101. It was the most prominent in a string of alleged Hindu terror cases.

Read: Why NIA dropped charges in Malegaon case

The dramatic revelations prompted Pragya to apply for bail on May 30 on the grounds that the NIA didn’t press any charges against her and that her health was deteriorating.

The defence pleaded she didn’t know how her motorbike – that she had sold long ago -- was used in the blast. The NIA also didn’t object to the bail, saying they had no evidence against her.

But victims of the blast and the families of the deceased criticised the NIA and said charges under the MCOCA were applicable to the case. They pleaded the court to see all material available before it and decide.

The case was handed over from the ATS to the NIA in 2011 along with six other cases of alleged Hindu terror.

Last year, the high-profile case took a new turn after former special public prosecutor of NIA, Rohini Salian, alleged that an officer of the agency had asked her to “go soft” after the NDA government came to power in 2014. The Opposition said this was an attempt to dilute the cases against the 11 accused including Pragya and then serving army officer Lt Col Prasad Purohit.

Several alleged Hindu terror cases – such as blasts in Malegaon (September 2006 and September 2008), Samjhauta Express (February 2007) and Mecca Masjid (May 2007) – have been dogged by slow prosecution and hostile witnesses.

The NIA chargesheet said MCOCA provisions were dropped because of procedural lapses and the ATS appeared to have filed chargesheets against one of the accused without sufficient evidence, only to fulfill conditions of the anti-terror act. Without the MCOCA, confessions by the accused to police officers wouldn’t be admissible in court.