Mumbai: Nearly 17 years after a powerful bomb blast shook the town of Malegaon in Maharashtra, killing six people and injuring over a hundred, a special court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and former Army officer Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit. The blast had occurred on the night of September 29, 2008, near Bhikku Chowk in the communally sensitive town, located around 200 km from Mumbai, during the holy month of Ramzan.
Special Judge A.K. Lahoti, presiding over the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish the charges against the accused. He stated that while the prosecution could prove that a blast had indeed taken place, it failed to prove that the motorcycle allegedly used to plant the bomb belonged to Pragya Thakur. The engine number was unclear, and the chassis number had been wiped out, creating doubt about the ownership and the alleged link. The judge also observed that there was no evidence that Lt Col Purohit stored RDX at his residence or was involved in assembling the explosive device.
The seven accused in the case included Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sameer Kulkarni. They were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity, and voluntarily causing hurt. All of them were out on bail during the trial.
The court also cited manipulation in some medical documents and discrepancies in custody records, noting that suspicion alone could not form the basis for conviction. It held that in the absence of conclusive evidence, the accused must be given the benefit of doubt. All seven accused were present in court when the verdict was announced.
Reacting to the judgment, Pragya Thakur said the case had destroyed her life and claimed she had been falsely implicated and tortured. “I was living a sage’s life. I was arrested and tortured. No one stood with us. I am alive only because I am a Sanyasi,” she told reporters. Her lawyers said the motorcycle allegedly used in the blast had been sold years before the incident and described the case as fabricated. Lt Col Purohit’s defence team argued that he was a military intelligence officer working undercover to infiltrate Abhinav Bharat, a group allegedly linked to the blast, and had been regularly reporting to his superiors. Several co-accused alleged custodial torture and claimed that their statements had been obtained under duress.
The investigation was first conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), then headed by Hemant Karkare, who was later killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The ATS arrested the initial accused in October 2008. The central government handed over the probe to the NIA in April 2011. In 2016, charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were dropped due to lack of evidence, but UAPA and IPC charges remained. Although the NIA later sought to discharge Pragya Thakur from the case, the special court refused, ruling that there was sufficient ground to put her on trial.
The trial formally began in 2018 and extended over seven years. The prosecution examined 323 witnesses—nearly 40 of whom turned hostile—while the defence examined eight. More than 10,800 documents were submitted as evidence, and legal arguments from both sides ran into over 1,300 pages. The case was heard by five judges over the years, with Judge Lahoti taking charge in 2023. The verdict was reserved in April 2025 and delivered on July 31, 2025.
The judgment brings to a close one of India’s most politically sensitive terror cases that had long drawn public and legal scrutiny.
