The special NIA court hearing the Malegaon bomb blast case has received a bomb threat. A public prosecutor said on Tuesday that a phone call was received at the court's registrar's office on October 30. The caller said, court room number 26, where the case is being heard, will be bombed. The police are investigating the matter and the case is being heard in the civil court of South Mumbai.
Here, a special NIA court has issued a bailable warrant against accused number one BJP leader Pragya Singh Thakur in the case for not appearing in the hearing. Pragya has not participated in court proceedings since June 4 citing a medical condition.
In 2017, the Bombay High Court granted bail to all the seven accused, including Pragya Singh Thakur.
Against Pragya Rs. 10,000 bailable warrant On Tuesday, Special Judge AK Lahoti ordered Thakur to pay Rs. 10,000 bailable warrant, saying that final arguments are underway and the accused must be in the court room. The warrant is returnable till November 13, which means Thakur has to appear in court by then and get it quashed.
Justice Lahoti said his earlier pleas for exemption on the ground of illness and hospitalization were considered from time to time. A photocopy of the medical certificate was also filed with the application today, showing that she is undergoing Ayurvedic treatment, but the original certificate is not there. So the court rejected his plea.
What is Malegaon Blast Case of 2008? On 29 September 2008, a blast took place in Malegaon, Maharashtra (about 200 km from Mumbai). An explosive device was planted in a motorcycle near a mosque here. Six people were killed and more than 100 injured in the incident. While the case was earlier being investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), the investigation was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2011.
A case is going on against seven accused A case is going on against seven accused in this case. These accused include BJP MP Pragya Thakur along with Lt Col (retd) Prasad Purohit, Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Sameer Kulkarni and Sudhakar Dwivedi.
2017 Bombay High Court granted bail to all the seven accused In April 2017, the Bombay High Court granted bail to all the seven accused. During this time, Pragya was granted bail on a personal bond of Rs.5 lakh. Then the court said that no case has been filed against the nun. The court also said that Sadhvi Pragya is a woman and has been in jail for more than eight years. She has breast cancer and is weakened, unable to walk without support.
Of the more than 323 witnesses in the case, many retracted their statements There are 323 witnesses in this case. 34 of them have been flipped. Based on the statement of the remaining 289 witnesses, the court has prepared a set of about 4-5 thousand questions. Earlier also many witnesses in this case have withdrawn their statements. During the hearing in August 2021, a witness who testified against Lt Col Purohit turned hostile. After this, a special NIA court declared him a traitor.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
