A special NIA court on Monday rejected the bail plea of four accused in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case, who had sought relief on the ground that eight Muslim accused were discharged from the case in April this year for lack of prosecutable evidence against them.
Special NIA judge VV Patil turned down the bail applications of Manor Singh, Rajendra Chaudhry, Dhan Singh and lokesh Sharma, who had claimed in their petition seeking bail that they had been falsely implicated in the case and that there was no evidence against them. The defence lawyers had also contended that many things NIA claimed to have recovered from their clients were easily available in the market.
Opposing the bail plea of the four accused, the Prosecution told the court that there was “ample evidence” against the four accused in the case and the evidence it had gathered against the latter was serious in nature.
Rejecting the bail plea of the four accused, Judge Patil said that the evidence collected by the NIA prima facie showed that the four accused along with the absconding accused had prepared and planted bombs at three places in Malegaon on September 8, 2006.
“At this stage it appears to me that prima facie the evidence collected by NIA show that the accused along with absconding accused prepared bombs and planted it... Bearing in mind the nature of the crime and the charges levelled against the accused persons, they do not deserve bail”, the judge said in his order, rejecting the bail plea by the four accused.
A special court had on April 25, 2016 dropped the charges against the eight Muslim accused in the 2006 triple Malegaon blasts case, after taking cognizance of the submission made by the NIA that there was no evidence to prosecute the accused in the case.
Nine accused were initially tried for their alleged involvement in the triple blasts that rocked Bada Kabarasthan, Mushawra Chowk and Hamidiya Masjid at Malegaon on September 8, 2006, in which 37 people were killed and 150 others injured. Of them, one of the accused died during the pendency of the case before the special court, resulting in the abatement of the charges against him.
In his judgement, Sessions Judge VV Patil had on April 25 ruled that the eight men be “set at liberty” — the ninth accused, Shabbir Ahmed, died in an accident early last year — noting that there was not sufficient ground to proceed against them.
While discharging nine accused — including the one who died during the course of the trial, the judge had indicated that the Prosecution would try the four remaining accused, who have now sought bail, and four other accused in the case.
“It is significant to note that when the NIA in its further investigation pointed out accused no. 14 to 17 (Manohar Nawaria, Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh Shiv Singh, lokesh Sharma), as offenders of the bomb blast at Malegaon and came to conclusion that accused no. 1 to 9 are innocent, this court as a post office cannot put a stamp of framing charges against them. In my view as the accused no. 1 to 9 are found innocent, the benefit of law must be given to them,” Patil had stated in his order.
The accused had allegedly planted bombs on bicycles and they went off after Friday prayers at the Mosque on the occasion of Shab—e—Baraat.
Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), which had initially investigated the triple Malegaon blasts, filed a 2,800-page charge-sheet against the nine accused in the case, before the MCOCA court on December 21, 2006. The day the State ATS filed the charge-sheet in the special court, the Maharashtra government handed over the case to the CBI.
The NIA, which took over the investigations from the CBI on March 22, 2011 expanded the scope of investigations into the blasts in the light of a confession made by Swami Aseemanand in the Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid blast case under section 164 of the CrPC before a Magistrate on December 18, 2010.
In a submission made before the MCOCA court in the first week of November 2011, the NIA had steadfastly refused to the bail applications of the nine accused on the basis evidence gathered by it during the course of its investigations, after taking over the probe from the CBI.
Subsequently in April this year, the NIA told the court that it had no evidence against the nine accused in the case, prompting the sessions court to discharge these nine accused from the case on April 25 this year.