Mumbai/New Delhi, July 31: In a significant development, a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Member of Parliament Pragya Singh Thakur, in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. The verdict comes 17 years after the incident, which shook the communally sensitive town of Malegaon in Maharashtra.
The court presided over by Special Judge A K Lahoti cleared the names of Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi. Announcing the verdict, the judge remarked that terrorism has no religion, as no faith justifies violence.
As per agency report, advocate Ranjit Nair, representing accused Sudhakar Chaturvedi, stated that his client was acquitted due to lack of evidence presented by the prosecution. Advocate Prakash Salsingikar informed the media that although the incident was tragic and lives lost can never be compensated, the court has ordered financial assistance to the families of the deceased.
Ahead of the verdict, heavy security was deployed in and around the sessions court in South Mumbai, with police presence heightened to ensure order.
The Malegaon blast occurred on the night of September 29, 2008, near Bhikku Chowk, where an explosive device hidden in a motorcycle killed six people and injured more than a hundred. The incident led to panic and chaos in the city, which has a history of communal tension.
Initially, the case was investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), but in 2011, it was transferred to the NIA for a more detailed probe. The agency re-registered the case and filed multiple charge sheets and supplementary reports over the years. The trial formally began in 2018 after charges were framed against all seven accused.
With this verdict, one of the country’s most controversial terror cases has reached a legal conclusion, though the scars and debates it left behind continue to resonate.
