Malegaon blasts: Appeals against order admitted

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has admitted the appeals filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and Sameer Kulkarni challenging the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court order rejecting their discharge application in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. The NIA has maintained its stand, taken before the NIA court, that it does not have evidence against Thakur hence won’t oppose her appeal.

The victims’ lawyer, as an intervener, has said they would oppose her plea. The matter has been adjourned for four weeks.

The division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Jus-tice A.S. Gadkari refused to accept the contention of the NIA and the intervener that the order pa-ssed on October 03, 2018 by the special NIA court rejecting the discharge application was interlocutory (temporary) and he-nce an appeal could not be filed against such order. The bench held the order on discharge application was final and admitted the appeal for hearing.

During the hearing, NIA counsel had informed the court that the agency wo-uld oppose the discharge applications of Col. Pur-ohit and Kulkarni and not Thakur because the age-ncy has not found suffici-ent evidence against her.

Following this, Jamiat-e-Ulema’s lawyer Shahid Nadeem on behalf one of the victim’s family told the court that the sessions court has already allowed them to intervene in the matter and they would be opposing the appeals filed by the trio.