The accused are: Sadhvi Pragnya Chandrapal Singh, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Singh, Sameer Kulkarni, retired Maj. Ramesh Upadhyaya, Ajay Rahirkar, Rakesh Dhawade, Jagdish Mhatre, Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar O. Chaturvedi and Lt. Col. Prasad S. Purohit — a serving Indian Army officer, attached to the AEC Panchmarhi, accused in the blasts conspiracy and helped to procure RDX.
A division bench comprising Justice B.H. Marlapalle and Justice A.V. Mohta set aside an order of a lower court of July 31, 2009, dropping charges under MCOCA on the 11 accused, including Sadhvi Pragnya and other members of right-wing Hindu groups. The high court also upheld the contention by the Maharashtra government, which went in appeal against the MCOCA Special Court’s order, that MCOCA should be made applicable on the 11 accused in the terror case.
Six people were killed and at least 20 injured when a bomb went off on Sept. 29, 2008, outside a mosque in Malegaon just after the evening prayers.
Besides the Sadhvi and a serving army officer, a retired officer of the army is also among the accused.
“All the accused are currently in custody in different jails in the state and shall be brought to Mumbai for trial under MCOCA July 23,” the Sadhvi’s lawyer Ganesh Sovani told IANS.
Last year, the MCOCA Special Court had granted the accused relief on grounds that the charge sheet filed against one of the prime accused, Rakesh Dhawade, by the police in a matter pertaining to the Jalna court, was not sustainable.
Hence, it dropped the MCOCA charges on the accused, according to Sovani.
Under MCOCA, depending on the nature of charges, the accused can get a minimum punishment starting with five years jail to life term or a death sentence, besides hefty fines, starting from Rs.100,000.
