No evidence: All 7 acquitted in '08 Malegaon blast case

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday acquitted all the seven people charged in connection with a bomb blast in Maharashtra's Malegaon town in 2008, saying the evidence against them did not inspire confidence and that it would be unsafe to base convictions on these grounds.

- Vikrant Jha

The high-profile order which came nearly 17 years after six people were killed and 95 injured in the blast during the last namaz of the day at a public compound on September 29, 2008—cleared former Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur, 55, and Lt. Col Prasad Purohit, 53, who was an officer with the Indian army.

"Terror has no religion, as no religion promotes violence," said special NIA judge AK Lahoti while pronouncing the acquittal.

The five others who were exonerated, beside Thakur and Purohit, were retired army officer Ramesh Shivaji Upadhyay, 73, Pune-based businessman Samir Sharad Kulkarni, 53, Purohit's purported close associates Ajay Eknath Rahirkar, 56, and Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi, 53, and Sudharkar Dhar Dwivedi, also known as Swami Amritananda Devtirth, 56, a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya.

"Mere suspicion cannot take the place of real proof," the court said, adding that in the absence of any evidence, the accused persons deserve the benefit of doubt.

In its order, the trial court said there was no evidence to show that Purohit had brought the RDX from Kashmir as claimed in the charge sheet.

The court also found no evidence to prove that the bomb strapped to a motorcycle and seized from the spot belonged to Thakur.