MUMBAI: In a major blow to the investigators of the Sept. 29, 2008 revenge blasts at Malegaon, a special court on Friday dropped the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) invoked against the 11 accused.
This came as a jolt to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad. The court gave a clean chit to the accused saying in its judgment the accused had not committed or violated any of the provisions of the MCOCA.
As the charges under the MCOCA have been dropped, the case will have to be transferred to Nashik District and Sessions Court.
The accused, including key conspirators Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Shankaracharya Dayanand Pandey and former military intelligence official Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, will have to be tried in a regular court there. Four of the accused in the case are from Pune.
The court also dismissed the bail application filed by Lt. Col. Purohit. Bail applicatons of the other accused were filed earlier and dismissed. However, it would be easy now for the accused to obtain bail from the regular court.
Additional Sessions Judge Y.D. Shinde, who presides over the designated MCOCA court, said the case does not come under the purview of organized crime and hence application of MCOCA does not stand. The judge concurred with the arguments of the defense layer that MCOCA was wrongly applied in the case.
Reacting to the special court’s decision of dropping of MCOCA against the accused in the Malegaon blast case, Minister of State for Home Naseem Khan said that they would challenge the order in the Bombay High Court after it receives the detailed reasoning of the order.
