Sixteen days after the Bombay High Court granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, the National Investigation Agency said “there is no material against her” and did not oppose her discharge application in the trial court.
Sadhvi had moved for discharge in the case before the NIA court one week after she was granted bail by saying, “It cannot be said that there are reasonable grounds for believing that accusation made against her are prima facie true.”
Special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal appearing for the NIA said, “The NIA stand is that there is no material that the trial can proceed against Sadhvi. The application for discharge is not opposed by the agency.”
Advocate Prashant Maggu representing Ms. Sadhvi said, “The grounds for discharge and bail for her have been the same. We have been maintaining that this is a fabricated case made out by the earlier governments and the investigating agencies mainly the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS). Subsequent investigations by NIA has brought forward the real facts of the matter. And upon evaluation of both the charge-sheets, even the High Court has upheld that there is no prime facie case against Sadhvi. So once the accusations have been put to rest that there is no prima facie case against her. He added, “Even the charge-sheet by NIA has said that there is no prosecuting evidence against her so she should be discharged.”
Mr. Maggu said based on this, the NIA has said there is no evidence against her therefore she must be discharged. It is also in line with the High Court where it has categorically said that there is no prima facie case and there is no fresh material on record.
Ms. Sadhvi was chargesheeted by the Maharashtra ATS in 2009 stating that it was her motorcycle that was used to plant the bomb that that killed six people and injured 101. However, the NIA had found evidence against her to be the weakest and said that evidence against her was not substantial. In its supplementary charge-sheet, the agency also said that the motorcycle, which was registered in her name, was used by an absconding accused.
