Bombay High Court.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: In a fresh development, the Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notices to seven people acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, following an appeal filed by the families of the victims.
The bench of Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, the Chief Justice and Justice Gautam Ankhad also issued notices to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Maharashtra government and posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.
The Navratri-eve blast coinciding with the month of Ramzan just two days before Eid, on September 29, 2008, had claimed the lives of six people and injured 101 others at Malegaon in Nashik district of Maharashtra - nearly 300 km away from Mumbai.
The family members of the deceased in Malegaon blasts - Nisar Ahmed Haji Syed Bilal, Sheikh Liaquat Mohiuddin, Sheikh Ishaq Sheikh Yousaf, Usman Khan Ainullah Khan, Mushtaq Shah Haroon Shah and Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh has field an appeal through Jamiat Ulema Maharashtra (Arshad Madani) Legal Aid Committee, which was representing the victim in the case.
On 31 July, NIA Court’s Special Judge Abhay Lahoti — for “lack of evidence” — has acquitted all the seven accused - former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur alias Swami Purnachetanand Giri, former Military Intelligence official Lt Col Prasad Purohit (Retd) and Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey alias Swami Amrutanand Devtirth, a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya, Maj Ramesh Upadhyaya (Retd), Sameer Kulkarni alias Chanakya Sameer, Ajay alias Raja Rahirkar, and Sudhakar Onkarnath Chaturvedi alias Chanakya Sudhakar.
During the court hearing, Advocate Mateen Shaikh and Advocate Shahid Nadeem represented the families.