Seventeen years after a powerful blast shook the communally sensitive town of Malegaon in Maharashtra, a special NIA court in Mumbai has acquitted all seven accused in the 2008 blast case, sharply criticising the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for presenting what it called “inconclusive,” “unreliable,” and “legally inadmissible” evidence.
In a 1,036-page judgment that was delivered on July 31 and made available on August 1, evening, Special Judge A.K. Lahoti observed that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt and dismissed the alleged terror conspiracy attributed to the right-wing outfit Abhinav Bharat.
2008 Malegaon blast: Who were the accused? A brief timeline of the case
“Upon a comprehensive evaluation of the entire evidence available on record, I am of the considered view that the prosecution has failed to adduce cogent, reliable, and legally acceptable evidence. The testimony of prosecution witnesses is riddled with material inconsistencies and contradictions. Such discrepancies undermine the credibility of the prosecution’s case and fall short of establishing the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt,” the order said.
The court further said, that the accused Pragyasingh Chandrapalsingh Thakur, Major Ramesh Shivji Upadhyaya, Sameer Sharad Kulkarni, Ajay Raja Eknath Rahirkar, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Onkarnath Chaturvedi are hereby acquitted of the offences punishable Sections 120-B, 153-A, 302, 307, 326, 324, 427 IPC and sections 16 and 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Sections 3, 4, 5, 6 of the Explosive Substances Act,1908 vide section 235(1) of the code of criminal procedure, 1973.
