Malegaon blast case: Abhinav Bharat not banned, govt yet to declare it terror outfit, says court

Mumbai: A special court that acquitted seven persons in the 2008 Malegaon blast case debunked the prosecution's claims that right-wing extremist group Abhinav Bharat had carried out the blast, noting that the government has not banned the organisation as a terror outfit.

Special Judge A K Lahoti, in the over 1,000-page judgment, noted that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in its investigation claimed that the accused persons were all members of Abhinav Bharat, which was an organised crime syndicate.

The judge held that the outfit has not been declared a terrorist organisation to date by the Central government, and "even the Abhinav Bharat Trust or sanstha or sanghatana or foundation is not a banned organisation".

The court noted that the term Abhinav Bharat was consistently used by the prosecuting agencies, from the stage of remand through the final hearing, as a common reference or in common parlance.

"It is necessary to mention that Abhinav Bharat is not a banned organisation. Till today, it is not a banned organisation under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act," the judgment said.

If the Central government is of the opinion that any association is or has become an unlawful association, it may be declared so by way of notification, it added.

"But nothing is brought on record till date to show that Abhinav Bharat Trust or Abhinav Bharat or Abhinav Bharat organisation is banned or declared unlawful by the Central government by way of any notification," the court observed.

It further noted that when the Abhinav Bharat Trust was constituted in 2007, it was registered with the Pune Charity Office, and on perusal, the trust deed did not mention anything wrong or illegal in its objectives.

As per the trust deed, the objectives of the Abhinav Bharat Trust were to create patriotism and religious activities.

"The objectives mentioned in it (trust deed) are legal. Moreover, there is no evidence to show that the accused, Pragya Singh Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni and Sudhakar Chaturvedi were members of the Abhinav Bharat Trust," the court said.

The prosecution had claimed that Purohit had floated Abhinav Bharat in 2007 with the intention to propagate a separate Hindu Rashtra, with its own constitution, as the members of the outfit were dissatisfied with the Indian Constitution.

It also alleged that the accused persons, who were all members of the group, had entered into a criminal conspiracy between January and September 2008 to carry out a blast in Malegaon to strike terror in the minds of people, cause communal rift and to overawe the government.

The objective of the accused persons was to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra called "Aryawrat", the prosecution had claimed.

The court, in its judgment, however, noted that the prosecution had failed to prove that the Abhinav Bharat Trust was constituted for Hindu Rashtra and to change the Constitution of India.

The prosecution also could not prove that funds amounting to Rs 21 lakh collected by Abhinav Bharat were used by the accused to purchase arms, ammunition and for other activities to carry out terrorist acts or illegal activities.