BJP MP Pragya Thakur’s bike used in the 2008 Malegaon blast was brought to the sessions court premises for inspection by a forensic expert who had examined the vehicle after the incident as part of the Anti-Terrorism Squad’s (ATS) probe.
Special Public Prosecutor Avinash Rasal said the expert has testified that he had found ammonium nitrate on some of the articles collected from the blast spot. He has also deposed that the chemical found on the LML freedom motorcycle was traced to Thakur.
It was on this motorcycle that the explosive was allegedly strapped. Six persons were killed and over 100 injured when the blast occurred on September 29, 2008, in Bhikku Chowk of Malegaon town in Nashik district.
This is the second time the vehicle is being brought to court for the trial, the last time being in 2019 when an independent witness who had been present when it was seized, had testified.
On Tuesday, special judge AK Lahoti, the forensic expert as well as the prosecution, defence and court staff climbed down the flight of stairs from the fifth storey of the court building for the inspection of the court premises.
Other vehicles that were damaged in the blast - a Honda Unicorn and five bicycles were also brought in a tempo. The procedure lasted about an hour in the afternoon. The witness inspected the dusty and rusted vehicles climbing onto the tempo in the presence of the judge and all assembled. Among articles he examined were also a broken number plate and the frame of the headlight of the LML Freedom motorcycle, the lamp of which had apparently blown off due to the impact of the blast. The witness inspected the motorcycle, of which only a bare metal frame was left and identified it as an ‘LML freedom’ seized from the blast site.
It was the examination of the motorcycle by the witness that had led to it being traced to Thakur. The registration number of the two-wheeler was a fake one. While the chassis number was not available, he had arrived at three probable engine numbers, from which the vehicle was traced to Thakur.
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