The Union Home Ministry has notified the appointment of judge V.S Padalkar, on the recommendation of the Bombay High Court, to preside over the special court that is holding trial in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case.
Judge S.D. Tekale, who was earlier presiding over the trial in the case in which Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur is an accused, was transferred six months before his three-year-term was to end in July.
He had ruled in December 2017 that Sadhvi Thakur and others accused in the case would continue to face trial under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) insisted that it was a routine transfer. In a chargesheet filed by NIA in 2016, the agency had given clean chit to Thakur and recommended that all charges be dropped against her.
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Six people were killed and 101 injured when an improvised explosive device strapped to a motorcycle exploded in Malegaon, Maharashtra in 2008.