Malegaon blast case: Pragya, Purohit withdraw discharge pleas from Bombay High Court

BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, on Thursday withdrew their pleas from the Bombay High Court.

A division bench headed by Justice Ajey Gadkari allowed the trio to withdraw their pleas. Earlier, Justice Gadkari had remarked that the charges have been framed against the accused and the trial has commenced and reached a very advanced stage before the special NIA court for their pleas to be considered.

Thakur and Kulkarni had filed appeal challenging the order of the special NIA court rejecting their discharge pleas in 2017.

Purohit withdrew two of the three petitions filed by him. One contended that the sanction under UAPA was defective. The other plea alleged that no sanction under section 197 (2) of the CrPC was taken to prosecute him.

The court, on Tuesday, reserved order in Purohit’s third discharge appeal which cited absence of a sanction under section 197(2) of the CrPC. The intervention applications filed in the appeals by victims were also withdrawn.

At present, over 289 witnesses have been examined before the Special NIA Court so far and over 25 of them have been declared hostile.

Six persons were killed and around 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a golden LML Freedom motorcycle registered in the name of BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.