Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, while rejecting a similar plea by Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit, in the 2008 Malegaon Blast Case.
Sadhvi Pragya has been ordered to submit her passport with National Investigation Agency and furnish a bail bond of Rs 5 lakh.
In February, a bench of Justices Ranjit More and Shalini Phansalkar had reserved their verdict on Sadhvi Pragya’s appeal against the rejection of her bail by the special NIA court last year. The same bench had reserved its verdict in the case of Col. Purohit as well.
Earlier, the NIA had informed the HC that it had no objection if Sadhvi Pragya was granted bail. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for NIA, had said the agency had already held that the provisions of stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) are not applicable in the case. NIA had then also stated that the ATS probe was faulty as several witnesses had retracted from their statements.
The counsel for Sadhvi Pragya had argued that although NIA court had rejected her bail application last year, but the circumstances “stood changed” since NIA filed its charge sheet, dropping charges against her.
ATS in its chargesheet stated that Sadhvi Pragya’s bike was used in the blast that killed seven and injured 101 persons, but NIA has not backed these claims and has stated that although the bike was in the name of Sadhvi Pragya, but it was used by someone else, who is still absconding.
NIA still held charges against Purohit under relevant sections of CrPC and the IPC, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Explosive Substances Act and Arms Act in its charge sheet. NIA had informed the court that Purohit had participated in many meetings organised by right wing organisations such as ‘Abhinav Bharat’, where he had delivered instigating speeches.
The blast happened on September 29, 2008 on the eve of Navaratri in Malegaon. Initially, the blast was linked to Muslim extremists, but after Mumbai ATS led by Hemant Karkare got involved in the investigation, it found incriminating evidence against the involvement of Hindu extremist groups. On October 24, 2008, the police made three arrests — Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra and Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu.