An appeal has been filed before the Bombay High Court challenging the acquittal of the seven accused including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case..The appeal has been filed by six Malegaon residents who were relatives of victims killed in the bomb blasts. The blasts had killed six people and injured over 100 in Maharashtra’s Nashik district.The explosion occurred on September 29, 2008 at a Chowk in Malegaon. An improvised explosive device (IED) had been placed on an LML Freedom motorcycle in a locality with a large Muslim population during the month of Ramzan..On July 31 this year, a special court acquitted all the seven persons accused in the case on finding that the prosecution failed to bring any 'cogent evidence' against them. Therefore, the Court said it had to extend the benefit of doubt to all the accused.The families of the deceased victims, however, have now contended that the trial court's acquittal cannot be legally sustained and that its judgment violates settled positions of law with regard to the appreciation of the evidence."The Ld Trial court has relied on minor errors and omissions which would only be natural given the passage of years between the investigation and the trial, and other stray technicalities to acquit the accused persons. The Ld Trial Court has unfortunately acted as a mere post-office, and allowed a deficient prosecution to benefit the accused," the appeal states.The appellants have, therefore, urged the High Court to set aside the trial court judgment in the matter and convict all the accused in the case..The case was initially investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which arrested 12 persons including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sudhakar Dwivedi..The ATS alleged that the blast was part of a conspiracy involving the group Abhinav Bharat. The investigating agency invoked provisions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).In 2010, the probe was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which filed a supplementary chargesheet in 2016.The NIA recommended that MCOCA be dropped and stated that there was insufficient evidence against some of the accused, including Thakur.However, in December 2017, the special court ruled that seven of the accused, Thakur, Purohit, Upadhyay, Kulkarni, Rahirkar, Chaturvedi and Dwivedi would face trial under the IPC, UAPA and Explosive Substances Act.The Court also directed that two others, Rakesh Dhawde and Jagdish Mhatre, face trial only under the Arms Act in separate proceedings, and three others were discharged due to lack of evidence as submitted by the NIA..The trial began in December 2018. The prosecution examined 323 witnesses, 34 of whom turned hostile. More than 30 witnesses died before they could testify.One of the accused, Sudhakar Dwivedi, argued that no blast occurred.This prompted the examination of over 100 victims and injured witnesses by the prosecution.Final arguments in the matter concluded in April 2025 and the court reserved the case for judgment on April 19 before acquitting all the accused on July 31. The appeal challenging this acquittal has been filed through advocate Mateen Shaikh.
