Sudhakar Chaturvedi, one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, speaks to the media after being acquitted by a special NIA court in the case, in Mumbai. File.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Malegaon blasts, after finding the details submitted about the appellants’ relationship to the deceased confusing and incomplete.A Division Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad was hearing the appeal against the acquittal of seven accused: former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, Ramesh Shivji Upadhyaya, Sameer Sharad Kulkarni, Raja Eknath Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, also known as Swami Amrutanand Devtirth and Sudhakar Onkarnath Chaturvedi, by a special NIA court this year.Also read | ‘Strong suspicion, no legal proof’: Why all 7 accused in 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case walked freeDuring the hearing, the petitioners’ advocates Mateen Shaikh and Shahid Nadeem submitted a compilation of evidence along with a chart listing the deceased and their family members. However, the Bench said the chart was unclear.“You must provide the details of the deceased and their relatives very clearly. Right now it is very confusing. For example, one says, ‘the father of the deceased was examined,’ but you are not specifying which deceased you are referring to,” the Chief Justice said.The Bench directed that the chart be redrawn in a precise manner, stating the exact relationship: father, brother, sister, cousin, against the name of the concerned deceased. It also instructed that the chart must specify whether the person was examined as a witness in the trial or not.“Please do the following in Column 2. Simply write the relationship of the person to the deceased; for example, say it clearly whether they are a father, brother, sister, cousin etc. and next to it, write the names of the deceased concerned. Be very precise. Do not put confusing words,” the Chief Justice said.“The real question we are asking is whether these persons have been examined or not. If the father is not a witness, make that clear. Do not mix up different deceased persons’ relatives. Prepare the chart in this clear manner and come tomorrow,” the Bench said. The advocates assured the court that a corrected chart would be submitted on Thursday (September 18, 2025) as directed. They also submitted to the Bench that the first appellant, Nisar Ahmed Haji Sayyed Bilal, whose son was killed in the blast, had not been called as a witness, though he was given permission to assist the prosecution throughout the proceedings. Speaking to The Hindu, advocate Nadeem said, “The court has taken the compilation of the evidence. Tomorrow we will submit the chart as per the directions of the Honourable Bench.”The appeal was filed by six relatives of those who lost their lives in the September 29, 2008, bomb blast at Bhiku Chowk in Malegaon.The appellants include Mr. Bilal, whose son Sayyed Azahar died; Shaikh Liyaqat Mohiuddin, whose daughter Shaikh Farheen was killed; Shaikh Ishaque Shaikh Yusuf, who lost his brother Shaikh Mushtaque; Usman Khan Ainullah Khan, whose nephew Irfan Khan died; Mushtaque Shah Haroon Shah, whose father Haroon Shah was killed; and Shaikh Ibrahim Shaikh Supdo, whose son-in-law Shaikh Rafique died.The families argued that as “victims” under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, they are entitled to appeal under Section 413 of the BNSS read with Section 21 of the NIA Act. They said the trial court wrongly acquitted the accused by acting as a “post office” and not filling gaps left by the prosecution. The matter will now be heard on Thursday (September 18, 2025). Published - September 17, 2025 01:55 pm IST
