MUMBAI: A special court here Tuesday framed charges against Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur along with five others with terror activities, murder, abetment and conspiracy in the 2008 Malegaon Bomb blast case.
The court is likely to begin recording evidence and commence the trial on Friday November 2. Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device went off in Malegaon, the Muslim dominated textile town about 250 km from Mumbai in Nashik district of North Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.
The charges were framed in the case over 10 years after the blast took place and about a year after the court dismissed the plea of the accused to discharge them in the case. Judge Vinod Padalkar framed charges against all the seven accused under sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which have maximum punishment of life imprisonment or death.
"The Abhinav Bharat organisation was formed with the common object to spread terrorism and a bomb with RDX was planted on a motorcycle in Malegaon that killed six, injured 101 people and destroyed property. The accused persons came together to hatch a conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and procured explosives to further their conspiracy," the order said which the judge read out in presence of all the accused in Hindi.
Apart from Lt. Col. Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya, charges were framed today against Sameer Kulkarni, Major (retd.) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahilkar and Sudhakar Chaturvedi. Of the 12 accused in the case, these seven have been charged with terror, murder, abetment and conspiracy."
The others have smaller charges against them like helping the other accused for a particular aspect etc., said Adv Ganesh Sovani. The accused have been charged under sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC. The accused were also charged under relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act.
While pleading not guilty, Purohit said, "No one can doubt my honesty, integrity and service record." He added that he never expected this.
The court had dropped charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the accused last year. However, didn't discharge them from the charged and held that the charges under the UAPA and other sections of the IPC can be framed against them.