Malegaon blast case: All accused, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh acquitted by NIA court
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Malegaon blast case: All accused, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh acquitted by NIA court")
Pragya Singh Thakur arrives at special NIA court for the Hearing of Malegaon Blast Case (File) Photograph: (ANI)
The NIA court hearing the case also observed that the prosecution was unable to prove Sadhvi Pragya was in possession of the bike used in the blast.
All accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh, Lt Colonel Purohit have been acquitted by the NIA court. The court in its hearing said that there was no evidence to prove that the explosives were assembled at the accused persons place and observed that the samples collected from the spot were “contaminated”.
“There is no evidence of storing or assembling the explosives in Shrikant Prasad Purohit's residence. No sketch of the spot was done by the investigation officer while doing the panchnama. No fingerprint, dump data or anything else was collected for the spot. The samples were contaminated, so the reports can’t be conclusive and are not reliable,” said the court while hearing the case.
The court also observed that the prosecution was unable to prove Sadhvi Pragya was in possession of the bike used in the blast.
“The bike allegedly involved in the blast did not have a clear chassis number. Prosecution could not prove that it was in Sadhvi Pragya’s possession immediately before the blast,” said the court.
The NIA court also denied to invoke UAPA saying, “UAPA will not be invoked in this case as sanction was not taken as per rules. Both the sanction orders of the UAPA in the case are defective.”
“Abhinav Bharat organisation was used as a common reference by the prosecution. There is no evidence that the money of the Abhinav Bharat was used for terror activities” the Court added.
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The families of all six victims of the blast will be given Rs 2 lakh each, while Rs 50,000 will be given as compensation to the injured victims.
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and several others injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle detonated near a mosque in Malegaon City, Nashik.
The Malegaon blast trial was one of the longest in recent memory. The court examined 323 prosecution witnesses and 8 defence witnesses during the process.
The trial spanned five different NIA judges. The prosecution submitted its final written arguments in three volumes, totalling over 1,300 pages, in April 2025.
