Mumbai | Nearly 17 years after a blast in Malegaon town of north Maharashtra claimed six lives, a special court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all the seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, noting there was "no reliable and cogent evidence" against them.
Terrorism has no religion, the court said, adding it cannot convict on mere perception.
As the acquittal rekindled the 'saffron terror' narrative buzz, Thakur and Purohit hailed the court's order. Thakur said the acquittal was not just a win for her, but for "bhagwa" (saffron). “Bhagwa ki vijay hui hai,” she added.
Welcoming the court verdict, the BJP said the Congress manufactured the theory of "Hindu terror" when in power to stop the rise of Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat chief minister, to appease its Muslim voters.
BJP leaders accused the then Congress-led UPA government of fabricating the "Hindu terror" narrative to target political opponents. The court verdict shows that the narrative has fallen flat, they said.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary Sunil Ambekar hailed the court order, saying it had brought out the truth.
Some people had raised this issue "because of their personal and political reasons" and had tried to "connect the entire Hindu community and Hindu dharma with terrorism", Ambekar told PTI.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said "terrorism was never saffron and will never be". He claimed that police acted under the UPA government's pressure while probing the Malegaon blast and Congress should apologise to the Hindus for the "fake narrative of saffron terror."
Rajya Sabha member Ujjwal Nikam, who was special public prosecutor in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack trial, slammed the use of ‘saffron terror’ term in the Malegaon blast case, saying it fuels communal divide for political gains.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that all the accused in the
Malegaon blast case got acquitted due to a "deliberately shoddy investigation".
In a post on X, he said six 'namazis' (Muslim worshippers) were killed in the blast and nearly 100 were injured and that they were targeted for their religion.
AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel demanded that the state government challenge the acquittal.
Sameer Kulkarni, one of the seven persons acquitted in the Malegaon blast case, said had his co-accused not hired a lawyer, the trial would have ended 15 years back.
Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde said the court verdict was a slap on the face of the Congress, and demanded an apology from the party for its "saffron terror" narrative.
Terrorism should not be associated with any religion and no faith advocates violence, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said.
Pragya Thakur said her life was ruined for the past 17 years, and that God will punish those who tried to insult "bhagwa".
An explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008 killing six persons and injuring 101 others.
The court noted that the prosecution failed to prove the motorcycle that allegedly triggered the blasts belonged to Thakur.
The court also observed that while the prosecution had proven a bomb blast did occur, it failed to establish that the explosive was planted on the motorbike.
Special Judge A K Lahoti flagged several loopholes in the prosecution's case and the investigation carried out, and said the accused persons deserved the benefit of doubt.
Besides Thakur and Purohit, the accused comprised Major Ramesh
Upadhyay (Retd), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.
After the court acquitted them, the seven accused looked relieved with smiles on their faces. They thanked the judge and their lawyers.
The court while reading out the judgment said there was no "reliable and cogent" evidence to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
"Mere suspicion cannot take the place of real proof," the court said, adding that in the absence of any evidence, the accused persons deserve the benefit of doubt.
The court also said provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) were not applicable to the case.
The court directed the government to pay a compensation of Rs two lakh each to families of the six dead persons and Rs 50,000 to each of the 101 persons injured in the blast.
“The court verdict is unacceptable and I will move even Supreme Court to get justice,” said the father of Farheen (10), the youngest victim of the blast. "We will go to the Supreme Court to seek justice," said 67-year-old Liyaqat Shaikh, showing a photograph of his daughter as he spoke to the media in Malegaon.
The trial, which started in 2018, got over on April 19 this year.
The probe was initially carried out by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which pinned the blame on right wing extremists who were members of 'Abhinav Bharat' group. It was later handed over to the NIA.
The NIA told the court that the blast in Malegaon, a town with a sizable Muslim population - was orchestrated by the conspirators to terrorise a section of Muslim community, disrupt essential services, create communal tensions and threaten the state's internal security.
The blast took place during the holy month of Ramzan, and the intention of the accused was to strike terror among Muslims, it said.
During the trial, the prosecution presented 323 witnesses, of whom 37 turned hostile.
Malegaon (Maharashtra) | The verdict of the trial court in the 2008 Malegaon blast was unacceptable and he will move even the Supreme Court to get justice if necessary, said the father of Farheen (10), the youngest victim of the tragedy, on Thursday.
"The court's judgement is wrong. We will go to the Supreme Court to seek justice," said 67-year-old Liyaqat Shaikh, showing a photograph of his daughter as he spoke to the media in Malegaon town of north Maharashtra.
The special NIA court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all seven accused in the case including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit.
Recalling the incident, Shaikh, who then worked as a driver, said Farheen had left house to buy `vada-pav' (a snack) at Bhikku Chowk on the evening of September 29, 2008.
"I heard the sound of a blast. We lived near the blast site, in a tin-roof house. Splinters were found on the roof of our house afterwards. I went to look for my daughter but could not find her. It was dark outside. Somebody said there was a girl among the injured. My wife and I ran to the hospital, where we found her in a bad situation," he said.
Then Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare had arrested the accused persons with enough evidence, he said.
Six persons including Liyaqat Shaikh's daughter were killed and 101 injured in the blast.
Nisar Ahmed, whose son Sayyed Azhar was one of those who died, said they did not get justice and will approach higher courts. Victims of any blast, whichever religion they may belong to, should get justice, he said.
Usman Khan, whose nephew Irfan Khan (22) died in the blast, said Irfan drove an auto rickshaw and had gone out to have tea at Bhikku Chowk when the blast ripped through the place.
"First we took him to a local hospital, from there we took him to Nashik," he said, adding the doctors at the Nashik hospital asked them to take him to Mumbai.
He was shifted to the government-run J J Hospital in Mumbai but died after 10 hours of treatment, Khan said.
He was not happy with the verdict, he said. "First some Muslims were arrested in the case, and they got a clean chit later. Now these people too were not convicted, so who was the culprit?" he asked.
The victim families would file an independent appeal against the judgement, said advocate Shahid Nadeem who represented some of them.
