Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court has ruled that the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) will apply in the Malegaon blast case of 2008. Those accused of the blast include Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit.
Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, atMalegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district ofNorth Maharashtra, bringing into focus some right-wing Hindu groups. The Anti Terror Squad (ATS) had arrested 11 persons the blast at Malegaon on September 29, 2008.
A year later, a special court in Mumbai said MCOCA charges would not apply to those accused because there was no proof that they were part of an organized crime syndicate. The Maharashtra government had appealed against this order.
The trial of the case will now resume before a Special MCOCA court in Mumbai. The accused, currently lodged in Nasik Central Prison, would be brought to a jail to Mumbai to stand the trial. Special Prosecutor Rohini Salian said she would soon initiate the process for the restart of the trial in MCOCA court here. "We will now seek case papers from Nashik sessions court."
In today's order, the High Court directed the special MCOCA court to hear and decide "preferably within two months" the bail applications filed by some of the accused.Lieutenant Colonel Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivade told PTI that the court has directed that all the accused should be produced before the special MCOCA court on July 23. Shivade said his client might move the Supreme Court. Purohit's wife Aparna said, "We did not expect this order."
Today's judgement comes as a shot in the arm for the prosecution. MCOCA is sweeping in its scope, because under it the prosecution need offer no evidence beyond the confession of the accused to secure his conviction. The admissibility of a confession as evidence, given by an accused to a police officer above the rank of the Superintendent or Deputy Commissioner of Police, is the most prominent - and controversial - provision in MCOCA. And this makes it extremely difficult for those accused under the provisions of this act to get bail.
(with PTI inputs)