Malegaon blast verdict: All 7 accused acquitted, NIA court says there’s ‘no reliable evidence’

All seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, were acquitted by a special NIA court on Thursday(July 31). The court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.

The judge, while reading the verdict, said there was no reliable evidence that Col Purohit had made the bomb or that the motorcycle used in the blast belonged to Pragya Thakur.

Suspicion alone cannot be the basis for conviction: NIA judge

Special Judge A K Lahoti observed that suspicion alone cannot be the basis for conviction, stressing that the prosecution was unable to prove the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

Others acquitted in the case include Ramesh Shivaji Upadhyay, Pune-based businessman Samir Sharad Kulkarni, Ajay Eknath Rahirka, Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi, and Sudharkar Dhar Dwivedi alias Swami Amrutanand Devtirth.

The court also noted that investigating agencies could not prove any of the accused had donated to Abhinav Bharat, the right-wing outfit linked to the case.

The court said there was no proof of secret meetings or of Abhinav Bharat being used for the activity, noting that the entire case rested on that unproven claim. It also said the voice samples presented were not up to the mark, and agencies could not establish links to the conspiracy.

‘Terrorism has no religion, but convictions…’: NIA court

In a significant observation, the court said, “Terrorism has no religion, but convictions cannot be based on moral grounds.” It also noted that Pragya Thakur had taken sanyas and renounced all material possessions two years prior to the blast.

The judge ordered a compensation of ₹2 lakh to the families of the deceased and ₹50,000 to the injured.

Meanwhile, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, who was the Additional Commissioner of ATS during the Malegaon probe, refused to comment on the verdict. Thakur had earlier alleged that Singh kept her in illegal detention and tortured her for 13 days. Another accused, retired Army officer Ramesh Upadhyay, also accused Singh of custodial torture.

Maharashtra ATS linked blasts to Abhinav Bharat

The investigation was first handled by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which later handed it over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2011. According to the ATS, the blast was allegedly the result of a conspiracy linked to the group Abhinav Bharat.

The Maharashtra agency had also claimed that the motorcycle used in the explosion belonged to Pragya Thakur, who was taken into custody the same year.

2008 Malegaon blasts

On September 29, 2008, a deadly explosion struck Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, leaving six people dead and over 100 injured. The bomb had been planted on a motorcycle parked close to a mosque, just as evening Ramzan prayers were underway.