Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur on Wednesday made a rare appearance before a special NIA Court in Mumbai in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case, in which she is an accused.
The court told Thakur that she will have to appear before it whenever summoned.
Apart from Thakur, LT Col Purohit, Chaturvedi and Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi are also accused in the case. They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The charges include Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153(a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.
Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008 .
(With ANI inputs)
