Malegaon case: Bombay HC discharges 4 accused
The 2006 Malegaon blasts case “seems to have reached a dead end,” the Bombay High Court said while discharging four accused and pulling up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for “completely ignoring” incriminating evidence collected by previous probing agencies.
The high court’s order, which was passed on Wednesday and made available on Thursday, leaves unanswered the significant question of who was responsible for the September 8, 2006, explosions that claimed 31 lives and injured 312 others. A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Chandak quashed a September 2025 special court order that had framed charges against Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Manohar Ram Singh Narwaria, and Lokesh Sharma. “The case seems to have reached a dead end. The diagonally opposite stories in the chargesheet filed by the ATS and the NIA lead nowhere,” said the HC order, made available on Thursday.
The bench said that the special judge had not “applied his mind” and overlooked the “inherent contradiction and intrinsic improbability” of the NIA’s prosecution story, which relied on retracted confessions and circumstantial hearsay rather than fresh material. In reaching to this conclusion, the high court anchored its judgment in legal principles established during the pre-Independence era, citing rulings from 1914 and 1934.
The bench referenced Lord Sumner’s 1914 judgment (Ibrahim versus The King), which established the “positive rule” that no statement by an accused is admissible unless proven voluntary and not obtained through fear or hope of advantage.
The court also cited Lord Russell of Killowen’s 1934 ruling (Sheo Swarup versus King Emperor), emphasising that an appellate court must not be burdened by the trial court’s opinion but must independently review the weight and reliability of all evidence.
The high court said the NIA’s probe “completely ignored” the initial probe by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which provided a “vivid narration” involving nine Muslim men arrested earlier in the case.
