The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed prima facie doubts about charging Malegaon blasts accused Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, Lt. Col S. Purohit under the draconian MCOCA and opened the doors for the Special Court to consider their bail.
A bench of Justices Ibrahim Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh said there is no "reliable material" to prima facie show that the duo along with four other accused were criminally liable under provisions of MCOCA.
"Their applications for bail can be considered for bail by the Special Judge... there is considerable doubt about their involvement," the court observed in the judgment.
The trial court has been asked to consider their bail applications within a span of a month.
However, the judgment found prima facie material against Rakesh Dawde, another accused in the blast case, justifying his involvement in offences under MCOCA. IT aaid prima facie material on record showed evidence of his "unlawful activity" linking him to Malegaon, Parbhani, Jalna blasts.
The judgment said material show prima facie his "direct involvement".
It said allegations against Mr. Dhawde included "nexus with organised crimes", "direct involvement in the Malegaon blasts". Since the charges against him under MCOCA cannot be revoked at this stage, there is no scope for bail for him, the court observed.The judgment was on the bail applications made by seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case.
The court ordered the trial court to complete the trial expeditiously.
The High Court had ordered that Pragnya and ten other accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case will face trial under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) and had quashed the decision of the Special Court which had dropped the charges under the special law.
The trial of the case will take place at a special MCOCA court. The accused are currently lodged in Nasik Central Prison.
Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally—sensitive textile town in Nasik district of North Maharashtra.
The probe into the blast has brought into focus some right-wing Hindu groups.
A Special MCOCA court on July 31 last year had ruled that Anti Terrorist Squad had wrongly applied MCOCA in the case against Pragnya, Purohit and nine others.
The 4,000-page chargesheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because Muslims form sizeable part of its population.
It named Pragnya Thakur, Purohit and another accused Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators.
The chargesheet had further alleged it was Pandey who had instructed Purohit to arrange for RDX while Pragnya owned the motorcycle used in the blast.
Ajay Rahirkar, another accused, allegedly organised funds for the terror act while conspiracy meetings were held at Bhonsala Military School in Nasik.
Rakesh Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre and Sameer Kulkarni were the other seven accused.
