Supreme Court opens door for Pragnya, Purohit bail in Malegaon blast case
The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed prima facie doubts
about charging Malegaon blasts accused Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, Lt.
Col S. Purohit under the draconian MCOCA and opened the doors for the
Special Court to consider their bail.
A
bench of Justices Ibrahim Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh said there is
no "reliable material" to prima facie show that the duo along with four
other accused were criminally liable under provisions of MCOCA.
"Their
applications for bail can be considered for bail by the Special
Judge... there is considerable doubt about their involvement," the court
observed in the judgment.
The trial court has been asked to consider their bail applications within a span of a month.
However, the judgment found prima facie material
against Rakesh Dawde, another accused in the blast case, justifying his
involvement in offences under MCOCA. IT aaid prima facie material on
record showed evidence of his "unlawful activity" linking him to
Malegaon, Parbhani, Jalna blasts.
The judgment said material show prima facie his "direct involvement".
It
said allegations against Mr. Dhawde included "nexus with organised
crimes", "direct involvement in the Malegaon blasts". Since the charges
against him under MCOCA cannot be revoked at this stage, there is no
scope for bail for him, the court observed.The judgment was on the bail
applications made by seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case.
The court ordered the trial court to complete the trial expeditiously.
The
High Court had ordered that Pragnya and ten other accused in the
Malegaon bomb blast case will face trial under MCOCA (Maharashtra
Control of Organised Crime Act) and had quashed the decision of the
Special Court which had dropped the charges under the special law.
The trial of the case will take place at a special MCOCA court. The accused are currently lodged in Nasik Central Prison.
Seven
people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a
communally—sensitive textile town in Nasik district of North
Maharashtra.
The probe into the blast has brought into focus some right-wing Hindu groups.
A
Special MCOCA court on July 31 last year had ruled that Anti Terrorist
Squad had wrongly applied MCOCA in the case against Pragnya, Purohit and
nine others.
The
4,000-page chargesheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the
blast target because Muslims form sizeable part of its population.
It named Pragnya Thakur, Purohit and another accused Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators.
The
chargesheet had further alleged it was Pandey who had instructed
Purohit to arrange for RDX while Pragnya owned the motorcycle used in
the blast.
Ajay
Rahirkar, another accused, allegedly organised funds for the terror act
while conspiracy meetings were held at Bhonsala Military School in
Nasik.
Rakesh
Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Sudhakar
Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre and Sameer Kulkarni were the other seven
accused
