BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday.
Ms. Thakur came to court at 12 p.m. and was sitting on the bench allotted for the accused as her lawyer was cross examining an Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) official who had arrested her and was deposing as a witness.
Special judge A.K. Lahoti allowed her to sit on a chair after she complained of backache and conducted the proceedings in Hindi instead of Marathi and English on the MP's request.
On June 7, 2019, Ms. Thakur had told the court that she did not know anything about the blast. She was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on April 25, 2017, after the court held “prima facie, no case was made out against her”.
Ms. Thakur was named in a chargesheet filed by the Maharashtra ATS in 2009, stating that the bomb was tied to her motorcycle. The NIA had found evidence against her to be the weakest and said that evidence against her was not substantial.
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In the supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central agency, it said the motorcycle, which was registered in her name, was used by an absconding accused.
The last time she had appeared before the special court in the trial was on January 4, 2021, after been given a "last chance" by special judge P.R. Sitre to appear before the court. The other accused in the case are Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi.
On September 29, 2008, a bomb exploded in Malegaon, a city in Maharashtra. As per the prosecution, 272 witnesses have been examined, 16 have turned hostile and the trial is likely to conclude in seven months.
