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  Malegaon blast: Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur moves HC to appeal against order

Malegaon blast: Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur moves HC to appeal against order

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : Aug 21, 2016, 2:14 am IST
Updated : Aug 21, 2016, 2:14 am IST

Accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose bail application was rejected by the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court in June 2016 despite a clean chit from the

	Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
  Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur

Accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose bail application was rejected by the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court in June 2016 despite a clean chit from the investigating agency, has approached the Bombay high court to appeal against the court order.

Sadhvi Pragya’s lawyer, Prashant Moggu, said, “The Sessions court order was erroneous and not maintainable, and that is the main foundation of our appeal and we are going to explain that in the high court.” Sadhvi Pragya’s appeal will be heard by Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Prakash Naik.

After getting a clean chit in May from NIA, which decided to drop all charges against Sadhvi Pragya owing to lack of evidence, she moved the special NIA court, which however rejected her bail application on June 28.

The NIA, in its charge sheet filed on May 13, dropped all charges against Sadhvi Pragya and five others including Shyam Sahu, Shiv Narayan Kalsangra and Praveen Takkalki, citing lack of evidence. The agency also dropped charges against Sadhvi Pragya under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

In her bail application before the NIA court, Sadhvi Pragya contended that there was no evidence against her. Though the motor cycle used in the blast was owned by her, she cited a witness’ statement which claimed that the motor cycle was in the possession of Ramchandra Kalsangra, an absconding accused. Some of the witnesses whose statements were used to implicate her, later recanted and filed complaints of torture by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, the application added.

Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, who was among the injured in the blast, filed an intervention application and opposed Sadhvi Pragya’s plea.

Seven people were killed and another 101 injured in a blast at Malegaon, a predominantly Muslim town in north Maharashtra on September 29, 2008. The NIA took over the case in 2011.