Mumbai: The intervenor in the bail plea of 2008 Malegaon blasts prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, has sought documents that were relied upon by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to drop charges of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against her.
Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, who was injured in the blast that killed six and injured 101 others, sought for certain documents before a Division Bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi. The intervention application was also filed before the special NIA court, which rejected it.
The court directed Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh to hand over confessional statements of three accused, recorded under Section 18 (certain confessions made to police officer to be taken into consideration ) of MCOCA.
Ms. Bilal also sought for the transcript of a recorded conversation in the laptop of Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, one of the accused. The recording was retrieved and examined during the investigation. Mr. Dwidevi had said in July 2008 that while he was at Indore circuit house, Ms. Thakur came with two men, who she introduced as Ramji and Sandeep Dange (absconder accused in the case).
The Bench also directed that the transcripts of intercepts of telephonic conversations between various accused post-incident, their voice sample reports by the forensic science laboratory, and call detail record analysis of phone numbers used by them, to be given to her.
The central agency informed the Bombay High Court that it has no objections if Ms. Thakur is granted bail. The matter is adjourned to January 31.
On August 22, Ms. Thakur had moved HC claiming that the special 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.
On June 7, the agency had told the NIA court that it had no objection towards the bail plea. The prosecutor then had said that, “Based on the charge sheet filed, we have stated that there is no case made out against Ms. Thakur Sadhvi.” However, on June 28, the NIA court rejected her bail plea.
On May 13, the central agency filed its supplementary charge sheet that dropped charges under the stringent MCOCA law against Ms. Thakur and five others. Ms. Thakur was charge sheeted by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad in 2009 stating that it was her motorcycle that was used to plant the bomb. The NIA had found evidence against her to be the weakest.
