2008 Malegaon blast: Victims move HC against acquittal of Pragya Thakur, 6 others

Six family members of people who died in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast have moved the Bombay High Court, challenging a special court judgment acquitting the seven accused in the case, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit.

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The appeal claimed faulty investigation or some defects in the probe cannot be the ground for acquitting the accused. It also contended that a conspiracy is hatched in secrecy and hence there cannot be a direct evidence of it.

The petitioners claimed the order passed by the special NIA court on July 31 acquitting the seven accused was wrong and bad in law and hence deserves to be quashed.

The appeal, filed on Monday by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal and five others through their advocate Mateen Shaikh, sought the HC to quash the special court judgment. As per the HC website, the appeal is likely to come up for hearing before a division bench headed by Justice A S Gadkari on September 15. An explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai in Maharashtra's Nashik district, on September 29, 2008, killing six persons and injuring 101 others.