Eight of the nine accused in the 2006 Malegaon blast case filed their bail applications on Saturday before the Special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) Court for the NIA (National Investigation Agency) here.
Their first bail plea was rejected in March this year.
“There is a change in circumstances after the case has been handed over to the NIA,” counsel Khalid Azmi told The Hindu. He said the accused were already investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the NIA. Brain mapping and lie detector tests were done in Ahmedabad at the instance of the NIA and the reports awaited.
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“I have said in the bail plea that that I will argue the applications only after the reports come. But there was nothing in the questioning during the tests that went against us. The reports should come in the next 15-20 days,” Mr. Azmi said.
The bail applications of Noorulhudha Samsud Doha, Shabbir Ahmed Mashiullaha, Raees Ahmed Rajjab Ali, Salman Farsi, Farogh Iqbal Magdumi, Sheikh Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh, Asif Khan Bashir Khan and Mohammad Zahid Abdul Majeed would be heard on October 31.
“I did not receive any instructions to file a bail plea on behalf of the ninth accused today [Saturday],” he said.
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The bail applications of all the accused were earlier rejected by the court on the ground that defence relied only on the confessional statement of Swami Aseemanand. “The court then told me that even your own accused have given confessional statements. I told the court that I had retracted them at the first possible instance,” said Mr. Azmi. .Swami Aseemanand had confessed to the involvement of Hindu extremists in the blasts, which killed 37 persons and injured more than 100.
The ATS had already filed a charge sheet and the CBI, a supplementary charge sheet.