2008 Malegaon blast case: Special NIA court to start hearing final arguments today

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 25 (ANI): The special NIA court will start the hearing on final arguments in connection with the 2008 blast case in Maharashtra’s Malegaon on Thursday.

The court has directed all the lawyers in the matter that the issue of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UA(P)A) will not be argued by anyone as the matter of sanction for UA(P)A in this matter is sub-judice in the Supreme Court.

The court has also asked all the accused to remain present except accused number 5, Samir Kulkarni, as his trial is also stayed by the Supreme Court till further orders.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed an application informing the Special NIA Court on September 14 2023 saying that it has completed recording evidence and does not need to call any more witnesses for a statement from their side. The NIA recorded 323 witnesses in this trial, and apart from these, 37 witnesses turned hostile too.

On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and several injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon city, in Nashik. The case was first investigated by the Maharashtra ATS before it was transferred to the NIA in 2011.

Former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and six others are facing trial for the blast in Malegaon.

On April 30, this year, the Supreme Court stayed the trial court proceedings against Sameer Kulkarni, one of the accused in the case.

The plea filed by Kulkarni through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain challenged the competence of the trial court to conduct the trial and also that without a valid sanction under Section 45(2) of the UAPA. The plea had challenged the June 28, 2023 order of the Bombay High Court which had upheld the April 24, 2023 order of the NIA court rejecting Kulkarni’s plea regarding the competence of the Court to hold the trial without valid sanction.