Seventeen years after a bomb blast shook the town of Malegaon in Maharashtra, a special court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and then-serving army officer Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, citing lack of credible evidence and serious investigative lapses. The others acquitted were Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sameer Kulkarni.
Delivering the verdict, Special Judge A.K. Lahoti said, “Mere suspicion cannot take the case forward. There has been a grave incident against society. But the court cannot convict just on moral grounds.” The judge added that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
The court was critical of the manner in which the investigation had been carried out, concluding that the case lacked the necessary evidentiary backing to support a conviction under any of the charges filed.
The blast occurred on the night of 29 September 2008, near Bhikku Chowk in Malegaon, approximately 200 km from Mumbai, during the holy month of Ramzan. An explosive device strapped to a motorcycle detonated, killing six people and injuring more than 100 others.
The prosecution had claimed that the two-wheeler used in the attack was an LML Freedom motorcycle traced back to Pragya Thakur. However, the court found this assertion unconvincing. “The bike allegedly involved in the blast did not have a clear chassis number. The prosecution could not prove that it was in Pragya Thakur’s possession immediately before the blast,” the court noted.
It further highlighted that no conclusive proof was submitted to establish that the explosive device had been assembled or stored at Lt Col Purohit’s residence. “There is no evidence of storing or assembling the explosives in Prasad Purohit's residence,” the judge said.
Serious questions were raised over the conduct of the original investigation, which had been led by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), headed at the time by the late Hemant Karkare. The ATS had arrested the accused in October 2008 and linked them to a lesser-known group, Abhinav Bharat.
But the court criticised the handling of forensic evidence and the procedural lapses during the initial investigation. “No sketch of the spot was done by the investigation officer while doing the panchnama. No fingerprint, dump data, or anything else was collected from the spot. The samples were contaminated, so the reports can’t be conclusive and are not reliable,” the court observed.
All seven had faced charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder, and promoting enmity. Additionally, they were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). All seven accused had been granted bail at various stages of the trial.
However, the court held that the application of UAPA in the case was flawed due to procedural errors. “Both the sanction orders of the UAPA in the case are defective. Sanction was not taken as per rules,” the court declared.
The court also noted discrepancies in the number of people reported injured. While earlier figures cited 101 injured, the court concluded that the number stood at 95. It also found evidence of manipulation in some medical certificates submitted during the course of the trial.
