Today, On 16th July, The Bombay High Court asked families of 2008 Malegaon blast victims challenging Pragya Thakur’s acquittal to clarify by Wednesday if they had testified during the trial, saying, “It cannot be an open gate for anyone to assail the judgment.”
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court asked the families of the 2008 Malegaon blast victims, who have challenged the acquittal of BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and other accused, to make their stand clear by Wednesday on whether they had testified during the trial.
A Bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor was hearing petitions filed by the families against the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court’s 2022 verdict acquitting Thakur and several others in the case.
During the hearing, Chief Justice Upadhyaya underlined that the Court must first know the exact role of the petitioners in the trial proceedings before entertaining their challenge.
He remarked,
“It cannot be an open gate for anyone to assail the judgment. If your son had died, you should have been a witness why didn’t you examine yourself?”
Earlier, Families of the victims of the 2008 Malegaon blast have now approached the Bombay High Court, challenging the special NIA court’s judgment that had acquitted BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, and five others in the case.
The blast, which happened on 29 September 2008 near a mosque during the holy month of Ramzan, killed six people and left over 100 injured.
It was one of the first terror cases where investigators had initially linked the alleged involvement of Hindu extremist groups, which sparked major political and social debates at that time.
According to reports, a criminal revision application has been filed on behalf of those injured in the blast. The petitioners are seeking to overturn the special court’s ruling and hold the acquitted accused responsible.
Earlier, On 31st July, Former BJP MP Pragya Thakur acquitted of all charges in the 2008 Malegaon blast case by a Mumbai court , which stated that there was no evidence to prove the motorcycle allegedly used in the attack belonged to her.
The judge highlighted that while the prosecution successfully demonstrated that the blast occurred, it failed to establish that explosives were attached to the LML Freedom motorcycle purportedly owned by Ms. Thakur.
This verdict concludes a 17-year saga involving Pragya Thakur, daughter of an Ayurvedic practitioner from Madhya Pradesh, who gained national attention after being accused of orchestrating terror attacks in retaliation for previous strikes, including the 2006 Mumbai train blasts.
In her late 30s at the time, Thakur became associated with the term “Hindu terror,” which emerged following the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
She was alleged to have organized manpower for the attack, while her co-accused, former Army officer Prasad Purohit, was said to have supplied the explosives. Both were acquitted today, along with five others.
The investigation was initially conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which was led at the time by Hemant Karkare, who would later be killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
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