National News: The special NIA court in Mumbai acquitted all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case on July 31, including BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahirkar, and Sudhakar Dwivedi. The court remarked that terrorism has no religion and concluded that none of the evidence presented by the ATS could be legally proven. According to media reports, on 29 September 2008, during Ramzan, an explosion took place in a Muslim-dominated area in Malegaon,
Nashik, in which 6 people were killed and more than 100 were injured. Maharashtra ATS investigated and claimed that the blast was caused by an IED fitted in an LML Freedom bike, which was registered in the name of Sadhvi Pragya. Later, sections like UAPA and MCOCA were imposed in this case.
No concrete evidence was found
The court said in its decision that there was no concrete evidence of the ownership of the motorcycle on the basis of which Sadhvi Pragya was made an accused. No credible evidence was presented on where the RDX came from. No evidence of conspiracy against Lt. Col. Purohit and other accused could stand in the court.
ATS made hasty allegations
In 2011, the investigation was handed over to the NIA. In 2016, the NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet and removed MCOCA and admitted that the ATS had made hasty allegations. Despite this, the trial continued under sections of the UAPA. In the end, the court said that the prosecution failed to prove the charges.
Seal of justice on controversial issue
The court made it clear in its decision that it is not justified to link any religion with terrorism and rejected political words like 'saffron terrorism' and said that the law works on the basis of evidence, not emotions. This historic decision sealed justice in a 17-year-old controversial case.
