Pragya Thakur has been citing ill-health, engagement as MP to stay away from the court (File)
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai on Wednesday granted the last extension to all the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case who were absent during the hearing, including BJP MP Pragya Thakur.
The court said that all the accused will have to follow the earlier orders of the court and be present in the court at least once a week from now onward.
So far, Ms Thakur has been citing ill-health or engagement as a Lok Sabha MP to stay away from the court.
The court also fined one of the accused, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, for filing unnecessary applications and wasting the court's time.
The accused had filed an application seeking the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) case diary, which the court termed as nothing but a delay tactic and fined him Rs 10,000. He has been asked to pay the fine within three days.
Another application by Mr Chaturvedi, seeking the report of his brain mapping test, was allowed by the court.
This comes a day after Bombay High Court observed that there was no progress in the trial.
Besides Mr Chaturvedi and Ms Thakur, Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (Retd.) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Ajay Rahirkar and Samir Kulkarni are also accused in the case.
They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
They have been charged for committing terrorist act and conspiring to commit terrorist act under the UAPA and criminal conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt and promoting enmity between two religious groups under the IPC.
Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.