2008 Malegaon blasts: Lt Colonel Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya, five others to undergo trial from 2 November; brief timeline of case

A special court framed charges in the 2008 Malegaon blast case against Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and five others for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder, among others. The court has posted the case on 2 November for trial to commence.

The accused were charged under sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA. Under the IPC, they were charged under sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups). If convicted under these sections, the maximum punishment can be life imprisonment or death. The accused were also charged under relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act.

Here's a brief timeline of the case, starting from the 2006 Malegaon blasts:

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a power loom town in north Maharashtra, on 29 September, 2008. On 27 December last year, the special NIA court had dismissed pleas filed by Purohit, Thakur and others seeking to be discharged from the case.

The NIA, after taking over the case, had filed a charge sheet in 2016 giving a clean chit to Sadhvi and three others—Shyam Sahu, Praveen Takalki and Shivnarayan Kalsangra—saying it found no evidence against them and they should be discharged from the case.