Mumbai: The Bombay High Court, which on Tuesday heard some CDs to ascertain Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s role in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, said one CD was cracked while 11 were not relevant to decide on her bail application. After the interveners brought it to the court’s notice that there were videos to substantiate meetings held in Bhopal convened by Sadhvi Thakur before the Malegaon blasts, the High Court had directed the registry of the lower court to produce them.
A Division Bench of Justices Ranjit More and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi was hearing the bail plea filed by Sadhvi Thakur on August 22 last year, stating that the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court had failed to take into consideration the change in circumstances between November 2015, when her last bail plea was rejected, and June 2016.
Senior counsel B.A. Desai, appearing on behalf of blast victim Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, had informed the court that the supplementary charge sheet filed by NIA that dropped the charge of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Sadhvi Thakur was found to be tainted and had no value. He questioned why the NIA had to take up the investigation when the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had completed its probe in 2009. He relied upon a statement of one of the witnesses that said there were meetings in Bhopal, Faridabad, Indore and Ujjain before the blasts and that the ATS and NIA had the videos of these meetings. He went on to say that the crucial meeting in Bhopal was convened by Sadhvi Thakur, and the video would substantiate her presence.
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In the last hearing, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the NIA, had denied having any transcripts or videos of the meetings. Sadhvi Thakur was charge-sheeted by the Maharashtra ATS in 2009, saying that her motorcycle had been used to plant the bomb that killed six people and injured 101. The NIA had found evidence against her to be the weakest. In its supplementary charge sheet, the agency also said that the motorcycle, which was registered in her name, had been used by an absconding accused.