In a significant development, a special MCOCA court on Monday 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.
Accepting the discharge application made by the eight accused on the basis of the NIA’s written submission about the lack of evidence against the accused concerned, designated Judge of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court VV Patil set the accused free by dropping the charges against them.
In a virtual rejection of the findings of the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) and CBI which had investigated the case in turns till March 22, 2011, the NIA had stated in a submission before the court: “No evidence was found in support of conclusion drawn in the final report filed by ATS and supplementary final report submitted by CBI recommending prosecution of the nine accused”.
The NIA, which had urged the MCOCA court to pass an appropriate order in the case keeping in view its submission, had also said that the evidence gathered by it during its investigations was not in consonance with the evidence collected earlier by ATS and the CBI.
The judge said that he was accepting the discharge application filed by the eight accused as there was no evidence to prove their guilt.
This is not for the first time that the NIA has refused to lend credence to the findings of both the State ATS and CBI. Within months after it took over the investigations from the CBI, the NIA had on November 5, 2011 preferred not to oppose the bail application of the nine accused in the case, a fact that prompted the MCOCA court to grant bail to all nine accused in the case.
There were nine accused 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 the abatement of the charges against him.
The eight accused who were discharged from the 2006 Malegaon triple blasts case are: Noor-Ul-Hooda Samshudoha Ansari, Raees Ahmed, Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Faroqh Maghdumi, Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Zahid alias Zahid Ali, Asif Bashir Khan alias Junaid and Abrar Ahmed Saeed.
The nine accused, including the one who passed during the course of the trial, had been arrested under MCOCA within weeks of September 8, 2006 Malegaon triple blasts.
The 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, Superintendent of Police and Chief Investigation Officer of NIA, New Delhi, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, had stated: “During the course of investigations, the NIA, after revelation of Swami Assemanand, arrested in Mecca Masjid bomb blasts case, reviewed the collective evidence and collected fresh evidence in the form of documents and oral evidences”.
In response to the bail applications of all the nine accused in the case, Yadav had stated: “The investigation has brought out several new facts and circumstances in the form of statements and forensic reports. Further investigation is in progress to collect more evidence for arriving at definite investigative conclusions”.
In their bail plea made in January 2011 in the wake of Swami Aseemanand’s confession pointing to a right-wing group’s alleged involvement in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case, the nine accused had stated: “From the confession, it is clear that those responsible for the 2006 Malegaon blasts are persons far removed from the current accused”.
On its part, the NIA stated in its submission before the special court in November 2011: “However, the NIA would not admit any of the contentions of the accused in the bail application in so far as they relate to the charge-sheets filed by previous investigating agencies. So also the facts and circumstances which came to light during the course of investigation by NIA, if they are traversed by the accused. Subject to the above, NIA is not going to oppose the bail application of all the applicants”.