BJP MP Pragya Thakur records statement in Malegaon 2008 bomb blast case

On September 29, 2008, a bomb exploded in Malegaon, a city in Maharashtra’s Nashik district killing six and injuring over 100. The other accused are Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.

Bharatiya Janata Party member of parliament (MP) Pragya Singh Thakur on October 3 appeared before a special court conducting the trial in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case. Ms. Thakur, along with six accused, recorded their statement on the basis of the evidence against her.

On September 29, 2008, a bomb exploded in Malegaon, a city in Maharashtra’s Nashik district killing six and injuring over 100. The other accused are Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge A.K. Lahoti on Tuesday started recording statements of all the accused in the case under section 313 (power to examine the accused) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. A copy of the questions were given to all the accused before their statements were recorded.

The questions were asked on the basis of the statements recorded by witnesses including doctors who had conducted the autopsy of victims and evidence collected by NIA.

Ms. Thakur, who is the MP from Bhopal, replied a blanket, “I don’t know” to all the questions asked to her. The trial has been going on since December 2018, and 323 prosecution witnesses have been examined and cross examined. As many as 34 witnesses have turned hostile.

The bomb blast case was first filed by Azad Nagar Police Station, but it was re-registered by Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) in November 2008 and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) charges were applied. In January 2009, the ATS had filed its first chargesheet followed by a supplementary chargesheet filed in April 2011.

However, in April 2011, the Ministry of Home Affairs had suo-motu directed the NIA to take up further investigation of the case. The central agency had registered cases under provisions of MCOCA, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Explosives Substances Act, and the Indian Penal Code. On May 13, 2016, the NIA had filed its second supplementary chargesheet but dropped MCOCA charges against all the accused.