HC stays granting of custody of Malegaon blast accused to NIA
The Bombay High Court today stayed the granting of custody of three key accused in the September 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Justice B R Gavai granted stay after the three accused - Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey - approached the court challenging the NIA custody stating that their petition challenging invocation of MCOCA was pending before the Supreme Court.
A special court had last week allowed NIA, which has taken over the blast case from the ATS, to take custody of the trio from July 22 for eight days, for interrogation.
"Justice Gavai has stayed the custody for two weeks after observing that a full bench of the High Court is deciding on another matter pertaining to the pecuniary (monetary) benefit section of MCOCA," special NIA prosecutor Rohini Salian said.
Lawyers for the accused told the court today that their petition challenging the provisions of MCOCA is pending before the Supreme Court.
The matter will be heard after two weeks.
According to the charge sheet filed by ATS, which was handling the probe earlier, Purohit, along with 11 others, had masterminded and carried out the blast on September 29, 2008, in which six persons were killed in the powerloom town in north Maharashtra.
Purohit, arrested on November 5, 2008, has been charged with being one of the main conspirators. He is also accused of procuring the explosives used in the blast and is alleged to be the founder of the right-wing group Abhinav Bharat, which was formed in 2007.
