Six people were killed and nearly 100 others injured when a bomb exploded in Malegaon in 2008.
A special NIA court today granted bail to two accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Shankaracharya, facing conspiracy charges, were granted bail by NIA Court judge SD Tekale.
The court while granting them bail observed that since the NIA has dropped MCOCA from the case the confessions of the accused are inadmissible.
It said that though the prosecution has said that the accused were present during the meetings in Faridabad and Bhopal, but nowhere it was the case of prosecution that in the meetings subject of Malegaon bomb blast was discussed.
The judge noted that the accused discussed about the formation of Hindu Rashtra and they wanted to establish their own constitution and were of the view that those who were detrimental to their constitution should be killed but they did not speak about the conspiracy of blast.
The court said Dwivedi also participated in the meeting held in Bhopal, but the witnesses brought by ATS have retracted their statements.
The court said that ATS attributed the role of blasts to Sadhvi and Purohit and not to accused Dwivedi and Chaturvedi. "Nowhere is the case of prosecution that Dwivedi was carrying RDX or participated in preparing bomb or wanted accused Ramchandra Kanlsangra and Sandeep Dange are Dwivedi's men or the motorcycle used in the blast belonged to him," the court said.
If all these overtacts are excluded from the consideration then certainly mere discussion in the meeting falls short to say that the bail cannot be given to Dwivedi and Chaturvedi, the court held.
Both are accused of attending conspiracy meetings, where the terror attack was planned, along with others.
Two key accused in the case, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, were granted bail earlier. The Bombay High Court granted bail to Thakur earlier this year, while Purohit was given the relief by the Supreme Court last month.
Six people were killed and nearly 100 others injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded in Malegaon town in Nashik district, about 200 km from here, on September 29, 2008.
Twelve people, including Thakur and Purohit, were arrested in connection with the blast.
All the accused were booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), besides under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
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