New Delhi: A special NIA court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of 2008 Malegaon blasts accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who had been given a clean chit by the probe agency last month.
Special Judge S D Tekale rejected the bail plea in an in-camera hearing. Rejecting the bail plea, the court said that prima facie evidence and MCOCA could not be dropped against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur.
The Sadhvi’s family said that will approach High Court against Special NIA Court order.
Pragya's lawyer Prashant Maggu filed the bail plea earlier on May 30 after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) decided to drop her name from the list of accused in its chargesheet.
Read: Malegaon blasts: NIA gives clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya
The NIA, in its charge sheet filed on May 13, had dropped all the charges against Pragya and five others -- Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shyam Sahu, Shiv Narayan Kalsangra and Praveen Takkalki-- citing lack of evidence.
The agency also dropped charges against her under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In her bail application, Pragya had contended that there is no evidence against her. Though the motor-cycle used in the blast was owned by her, she cited a witness’ statement which claimed that it was in the possession of Ramchandra Kalsangra, an absconding accused.
Some of the witnesses whose statements were used to implicate her later recanted and filed complaints of torture by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, the application adds.
Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, who was among those injured in the blast, had filed an intervention application and opposed her plea.
Seven people were killed and another 101 injured in a blast at Malegaon, a predominantly Muslim town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008. The NIA took over the case in 2011.
