Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur applied for bail before a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Monday in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
On May 13, the NIA had dropped charges of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the agency.
Advocate Prashant Maggu, appearing for Pragya Sadhvi, filed the bail plea seeking to drop her name from the list of the accused. The application stated that her bail application was rejected earlier because the investigation was still going on, but since the NIA has dropped MCOCA charges against her, she is entitled for bail. The plea also said that she has been in jail for several years.
The chargesheet had stated that there was no evidence against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shyam Sahu, Shiv Narayan Kalsangra and Praveen Takkalki to prosecute them.
The Sadhvi was chargesheeted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2009 stating that it was her motorcycle that was used to plant the bomb that that killed six people and injured 101.
The NIA found her to be weakest accused and said that it had not found any evidence against her. In its supplementary chargesheet, the agency also said that the motorcycle, which was registered in her name, was used by an absconding accused.
The NIA is likely to file its reply on the plea on June 6.
In a related development, two more accused in the 2008 blasts case, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Pravin Takkalki have also filed their bail applications, which will be heard by the NIA court on June 10.
