Pragya Singh Thakur, a lawmaker for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of seven defendants in the Malegaon explosion case in 2008, appeared before the special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Mumbai on Monday. However, the court postponed the hearing to December 5 and asked Thakur to be present in court every time he was asked after he applied for the waiver of daily court appearance for health and safety reasons, according to ANI.
Thakur’s attorney, defender JP Mishra, had confirmed that he will appear in NIA court on Monday. Mishra had said on December 19 last year that the investigating agency was delaying the trial in the Malegaon explosion case in 2008 and not them.
The special court had asked all the accused to be present before it that day. However, only Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahikar and Sudhakar Dwiwedi appeared in court. The remaining defendants, Pragya Singh Thakur, Ramesh Upadhayay, Sudhakar Diwedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi, were unable to appear in court.
Six people died and more than 100 were injured when an explosive device attached to a motorcycle exploded near a mosque in Malegaon, a city in northern Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008. The court had brought terrorism charges against Purohit, Thakur and five other defendants. in October 2018. They have been charged under articles 16 (commission of a terrorist act) and 18 (conspiracy to commit a terrorist act) of the Illicit Activities (Prevention) Law (UAPA).
They have also been charged under sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempted murder), 324 (willfully causing harm) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) , of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant provisions of the Explosive Substances Act.
(With contributions from the agency)
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