Malegaon blast case: NIA court asks Pragya Thakur to appear before it once a week

A special NIA court here on Monday directed Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur and all other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case to appear before it once a week. Special NIA Judge Vinod Padalkar while asking BJP leader Thakur to be present before the court referred to a recent Supreme Court order which said hearing in criminal cases against public representatives be expedited.

Of the seven accused in the case, Samir Kulkarni, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and Ajay Rahirkar were present in the court, while the others filed exemption applications. The judge directed that all the accused including Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sameer Kulkarni must appear at least once a week. All the seven are on bail.

They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The charges include sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.

The accused have also been charged under relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act. On September 29, 2018, six people were killed and a dozen others were injured when a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra's Malegaon city.

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