NEW DELHI: Six family members of those killed in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast have approached the Bombay high court, challenging the special NIA court’s decision to acquit seven accused, including BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, reported PTI.The appeal, filed on Monday by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal and five others through advocate Mateen Shaikh, has sought that the high court quash the July 31 judgment of the special court.On September 29, 2008, an explosive strapped to a motorcycle detonated near a mosque in Malegaon, about 200 km from Mumbai, leaving six dead and 101 injured. Investigators alleged the attack was carried out by right-wing extremists to target the Muslim community in the communally sensitive town.While acquitting all seven accused, special judge A K Lahoti observed that “mere suspicion cannot replace real proof” and held that the prosecution had failed to produce cogent and reliable evidence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The court also noted several loopholes in the investigation and extended the benefit of doubt to the accused.The petitioners have argued that the judgment is “bad in law” and must be set aside. Besides Thakur and Purohit, the acquitted included Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over the probe in 2011, had opposed the discharge of the accused but later gave a clean chit to some of them, including Thakur, citing lack of prosecutable evidence. In April this year, the special NIA court acquitted all seven accused while convicting only one, Pravin Takalki, under the Arms Act.The Malegaon blast, which took place near a mosque during the holy month of Ramzan, was one of the first terror cases in which investigators initially linked the involvement of Hindu extremist groups, sparking widespread political and social debate at the time.
