Representative image.
Mumbai: Seventeen years after a powerful bomb blast ripped through the communally-sensitive town of Malegaon in Nashik district, a Special Court of National Investigation Agency (NIA) is set to deliver the verdict on Thursday.
The case has been one of the most politically-sensitive cases as words like - “Hindu terror” and “saffron terrorism” came to be used.
Special Judge A K Lahoti has asked all the accused to be produced before the court on July 31.
The Navratri-eve blast coinciding with the month of Ramzan, on September 29, 2008, had claimed the lives of six persons and injured 101 others at Malegaon in Nashik district of Maharashtra - nearly 300 kms away from Mumbai.
The court had on April 19 reserved the case for orders and directed the accused to appear before it on May 8 for the verdict, however, Special Judge Lahoti then fixed 31 July for pronouncement of verdict.
Seven accused who faced the trial are - Sadhvi Pragya Singh Chandrapal Singh Thakur alias Swami Purnachetananda Giri, Lt Col Prasad Purohit (Retd), Maj Ramesh Upadhyaya (Retd), Sameer Kulkarni alias Chanakya Sameer, Ajay alias Raja Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey alias Swami Amrutanand Devtirth and Sudhakar Onkarnath Chaturvedi alias Chanakya Sudhakar.
There were a total 12 accused in the case of which five have been discharged.
The accused are facing charges under Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Explosives Substances Act.
The charges under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were dropped.
Five accused have been discharged from the case before the commencement of the trial before the Special NIA Court.
The case was initially transferred from Nashik Rural police to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra police. Later, the NIA took over.
The investigation of the case was initially overseen by the then ATS’ Special Inspector General of Police Hemant Karkare, who laid down his life during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
The ATS had filed the chargesheet in 2009, however, later, the case was transferred to the NIA, which filed a supplementary chargesheet in 2016.
In its chargesheet, while the NIA aligned with the ATS probe, it differed on certain aspects and recommended dropping of the charges under MCOCA, which was accepted by the court.
The hearing of evidence in the case was closed in September 2023 after 323 witnesses deposed, 34 of whom turned hostile.
Speaking to DH, Senior Advocate JP Singh, who represented Sadhvi Pragyasingh, confirmed that the verdict would be announced on Thursday. "Truth will win," he said.