Why the Malegaon blast case, one of India's longest terror trials, is unique

An Indian court on Thursday (July 31) acquitted all seven accused in Malegaon blast case, one of India's longest terror trials. The Natinonal Investigation Agency (NIA) court said the families of all six victims of the 2008 blast in will be given Rs 200,000 each, and all injured victims will be given Rs 50,000 as compensation.

About the Malegaon blast case

The blast took place in the Malegaon town in Nashik district of the western state of Maharashtra on 29 September 2008. The accused include former parliamentarian Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit.

What the NIA court said about the Malegaon blast

The NIA court said that while the prosecution proved that a blast occurred in Malegaon, it failed to prove that a bomb was placed in a motorcycle. The court concluded that the injured people were not 101 but 95, and there was manipulation in some medical certificates.

It also noted that the ‘Abhinav Bharat’ organisation was used as a common reference by the prosecution, even as there was no evidence that the funds of this Hindu organiastion was used for terror activities.

There is no evidence of storing or assembling the explosives in Shrikant Prasad Purohit's residence, the court said. The court also noted that no sketch of the spot was done by the investigation officer and 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, it added.

The bike allegedly involved in the blast did not have a clear chassis number and prosecution could not prove that it was in Sadhvi Pragya’s possession immediately before the blast, said the court.

Why the Malegaon blast case is unique: One of the longest terror cases with large amount of evidence shared

The Malegaon blast was one of the cases touted as ‘Hindu terror’ by a section of the Indian media. It is one of the most complex and politically sensitive terror trials in recent memory.

In the nearly two decades of the case, more than 10,800 exhibits were submitted,
and 404 articles were seized and tagged as evidence.
The NIA court examined 323 prosecution witnesses and eight defence witnesses.
Nearly 40 witnesses turned hostile, including some key ones linked to the early Anti-terror Squad (ATS) probe.
The trial was heard by five different NIA judges.
The prosecution submitted its final written arguments in three volumes, totalling more than 1,300 pages, in April 2025.

Both sides were allowed rebuttals, and the verdict was reserved on April 19 before the rulding on Thursday.