Court upholds charges against Malegaon accused

A special court in Mumbai upheld Mumbai Police's ATS chargesheet, slapping charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act on the 11 accused for the Malegaon blast.

A special court in Mumbai on Thursday upheld Mumbai Police's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chargesheet, slapping charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on the 11 accused for the Malegaon blast.

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Special MCOCA Court Judge YD Shinde's ruling came after two days of marathon arguments against the charges by the defence lawyers.

Ganesh Sovani, one of the defence lawyers, told IANS shortly after the verdict that within a fortnight, the defence will challenge the ruling before the Bombay High Court.

On Tuesday, the ATS had filed the chargesheet against the 11 accused - Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad S Purohit, Rakesh Dhawade, Swami Amritanand alias Dayanand Pandey, former armymen Ramesh Upadhyay and Jagdish Mhatre, Ajay Rahirkar, Shyamlal Bhanwarlal Sahu, Shivnarain Singh Kalsangra, Samir Kulkarni and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.

Six people were killed in the blast in Malegaon town of Maharashtra on the night of September 29, 2008.