'Grave Suspicion But Not Enough Evidence': Court Acquits All Seven Accused in Malegaon Terror Blast Case

Mumbai: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday (July 31) acquitted all seven accused tried for their roles in the 2008 Malegaon terror blast case in which six died and over a hundred were injured.

BJP leader and former MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi all stand acquitted.

“Terror has no religion because no religion can advocate violence,” special NIA court judge A.K. Lahoti said.

“I am fully aware of the degree of agony, frustration and trauma caused to society at large,” judge Lahoti said, “more particularly to the family of victims by the fact that a heinous crime of this nature has gone unpunished.”

“However, law does not permit the court to convict the accused solely on the basis of moral conviction or suspicion … The court of law is not supposed to proceed on popular or predominant public perceptions about the matter. The more serious the offence, the higher the degree of proof needed for conviction.”

This is a case in which NIA special public prosecutor Rohini Salian resigned claiming that the NIA was going out of its way to water down the case and had been given a standing instruction to go easy on the “Hindu terror” accused.

The court began by reading the prosecution’s arguments and the accounts of the witnesses examined in the case.

The prosecution successfully established that a blast happened on September 29, 2008, but was not able to prove that a bike said to have belonged to Thakur was used for the blast, the court noted. The prosecution, the court held, was able to establish deaths and injuries due to the blast.

But when it came to evidence, the court made serious observations. The collection of primary evidence from the place of incidence was not carried out properly, the judge pointed out in court.

“No rough sketch map was drawn of the spot during the panchnama,” judge Lahoti read out from the judgment.

The blast took place on September 29, 2008. It was the month of Ramzan, considered holy for Muslims, while the Hindu festival of Navratri was also ongoing.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had claimed that the motive behind the blast was to cause communal tension in Malegaon, a town in Nashik district.

Following the blast, people had gathered in large numbers, leading to stone-pelting. The police had also reportedly fired a round to disperse the gathered crowd.

In its judgment the court observed: “Spot panchanama was prepared without seizure of single stone or other articles thrown by the mob. No empty shells or caps were seized from the firing by the police. No fingerprint, DNA samples, dump data was collected though fingerprint experts were present there. The spot was not barricaded immediately to protect it or to keep it safe and secure.”

“Hence, the court has arrived at the conclusion that there was contamination. Those contaminated articles were sent for forensic analysis. The result, therefore, cannot be 100% accurate,” the court observed.

Pragya Singh Thakur

Thakur, then a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, was the first one to be arrested in the case.

The ATS had claimed that an improvised explosive device or IED had been planted on an LML Freedom motorcycle, which they claimed belonged to Thakur. This was denied by Thakur, who claimed she had sold it long before the terror blast.

The ATS also claimed that the bike carried a fake number plate and that its engine number and chassis number had also been erased in the blast.

According to the prosecution, Thakur’s motorcycle was used by Ramchandra Kalsangra alias Ramji, a wanted accused in the case. Both Thakur and Kalsangra were residents of Madhya Pradesh and allegedly known to each other.

The court today observed:

“On the basis of the restoration of some incomplete alphanumeric numbers, from the engine number plate which were close to the engine number, the prosecution claimed the bike belonged to Pragya Singh Thakur. The prosecution had jumped to the conclusion that it is the same vehicle. For proper identification, chassis number (also known as the vehicle identification number) as well as engine number both are required. In the present case, the chassis number was wiped out by the expert and it was never restored.”

It claimed there was no cogent and reliable evidence to show that Thakur owned the vehicle or that she was in immediate possession of the bike. “She had renounced the material world two years before the incident when she accepted sainthood,” the court said.

In court, Thakur said that the “illegal activities done [ostensibly meaning that they were done by investigating agencies]” had destroyed her life. “I am a saint, so I suppose that is why I am still alive,” she said. She also said she has died several times in her efforts to remain alive in the last 17 years.

Thakur, who has publicly lauded Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, appreciated the judge for parsing through the facts.

“Justice is done. People will not forgive those who have done this … Today, saffron has won, Hindutva has won,” she said.

Prasad Purohit

A serving army officer, Purohit’s arrest in 2008 was considered key in establishing the “motive” behind the blast.

Purohit, according to the ATS, founded the Abhinav Bharat organisation in 2006, through which funds were allegedly collected and the conspiracy planned. The ATS had claimed that Purohit through this organisation was trying to establish a “Hindu rashtra [nation]” which would have its own constitution, flag and “government in exile” to be run from either Israel or Thailand.

The ATS had also claimed to have established financial chains and invoked sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA) to investigate pecuniary activities in the case.

Recalling the prosecution’s case, the court said that Rahirkar was treasurer of Abhinav Bharat and Purohit a trustee.

“It came on record that there was financial transaction, collection of donations, distribution of amounts by Rahirkar to Purohit and Upadhyay. It also came on record that Purohit had utilised that amount for his personal work, house construction and LIC policies. But there was no evidence that the said amount was used for terrorist activities.”

While the MCOCA charges were dropped, the court today claimed that the prosecution failed to establish that Purohit had procured or arranged for the transportation of the RDX explosive.

“Though it was alleged that RDX was brought by Purohit after completion of his posting at Kashmir, no evidence on the point of storage of RDX at the house of Purohit” was brought forth, the court observed.

It also said that there was “no evidence to show that the RDX was used in assembling and fitting”.

“There was nothing to show that Purohit had assembled the bomb. There is no evidence on the point of recce of the spot. There is no evidence on the parking of the vehicle, when and who parked it when the area was cordoned off for Ramzan,” the judge read out from the judgment in the open court.

It is important to note that the court pointed to “grave suspicion” against the accused person. But it also added that “grave degree of suspicion is established but not enough to convict the accused persons. Hence, the court has given them the benefit of doubt.”

Judge Lahoti also reiterated: “There can be strong suspicion but mere suspicion is not enough to punish them.”

Soon after the judgment, a few accused persons, including Thakur and Purohit, addressed the court and spoke of their “ordeal” over the past two decades.

“The agencies are not wrong, the foundation of this case is wrong,” Purohit said in court today, claiming that at times these agencies behave in a “foul” manner. He also expressed his gratitude to the judge.

The phone interceptions that the prosecution had relied on to build a case against the accused were not procured through appropriate permission, the court observed today.

The defence had contested the manner in which sanctions were obtained to try the accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The court today claimed that the orders passed by the additional chief secretary (home) were “defective” and “invalid”.

What was the Malegaon blast case?

On September 29, 2008, a bomb went off at the Bhikku Chowk in Malegaon, once famous for its powerloom industry. In the immediate aftermath, a first information report was lodged with the local police. Eventually, the investigation was handed over to the ATS.

Then-ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was killed in another terror attack the same year on November 26, initially led the investigation.

The seven accused were put on trial under several charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Explosive Substances Act and Indian Penal Code for murder and conspiracy.

The case that dragged on nearly 17 years saw several dramatic ups and downs.

After the initial investigations by the ATS, the case was eventually handed over to the NIA. Initially, 12 persons were named in the case and they spent close to nine years in jail.

In May 2016, when the NIA filed the supplementary chargesheet in the case, it decided to drop six names, including that of Thakur. The agency’s attempt to discharge her from the case was challenged and she continued to face trial.

Out of the five others, Shyam Sahu, Praveen Takalki and Shivnarayan Kalsangra were discharged from the case. Kalsangra’s brother Ramchandra, who according to the ATS had planted the bomb, is shown as absconding in the case. Two others, Jagdish Mhatre and Rakesh Dhawde, too were cleared of all terror charges and only faced trial under the Arms Act before another court.

The NIA took over its investigation in 2011, along with other cases of terror that took place around that time.

By this time, almost all accused persons had made several allegations of torture and coercion. They claimed the ATS had extracted their confessions after subjecting them to sustained torture. Complaints were made to the state human rights commission, but no favourable order was passed.

The NIA accepted some of these allegations after it took over. The accused persons later relied on the NIA chargesheet to strengthen their defence and harped on the claim that their confessions were all taken under duress by the ATS.

The ATS said that the bomb was assembled at the house of the arrested accused Chaturvedi.

The trial finally began by the end of 2018. 

After NIA prosecutor Salian’s exit, special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal took over and conducted the trial.

In all, 323 witnesses were examined over the last seven years. Of them, as many as 39 have turned hostile. They were crucial witnesses, essential to establishing the several alleged conspiracy meetings that took place across the country.

Close to 30 witnesses died even before their turn to testify before the court came up.

According to the ATS, meetings were conducted at the Raigarh fort, the Sir Parashurambhau College and the BMCC College in Pune, and at Deolali in 2007, at Hari Parbat in Faridabad in 2008, in Kolkata, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore, Nashik, Ujjain and the Bhagur camp, and the final one at Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh, under Thakur’s leadership.

Most witnesses, including a few serving army officials, who had earlier testified about their knowledge of the many meetings eventually turned hostile in court. Some of these witnesses have been among those who have claimed that the ATS tortured them and extracted their earlier statements.

The court observed that the material witnesses did not support the prosecution's case. Of those who supported it, the court “did not find their testimony reliable and acceptable”.

The prosecution neither sought perjury charges against any of the witnesses who turned hostile nor made any statement before the court today.

After the verdict, Rasal said upon receiving the detailed judgement copy that runs to over 1,000 pages that the state will decide whether to file an appeal in the case.

This article was updated at 11:19 pm on July 31.

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