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No objection to Sadhvi Pragya's discharge in Malegaon blast case: NIA

On being granted bail by the High Court, Thakur had then filed an application before the special NIA Court seeking discharge from the case on the ground that the High Court had already given her a clean chit in its bail application order.

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Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday informed the Special NIA Court that it has no objection to the discharge application filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. In its reply, the NIA claimed that prima facie there appears to be no evidence against her, and thus the agency would not have any issue with her being discharged from the case.

On April 25, the Bombay High Court had granted Thakur bail on the grounds that prima facie, there was no evidence against her and thus she deserved bail. It, however, said that it was only passing an order with regard to the bail application and not on the merits of the case against her.

On being granted bail by the High Court, Thakur had then filed an application before the special NIA Court seeking discharge from the case on the ground that the High Court had already given her a clean chit in its bail application order.

In its reply to the discharge application, the NIA on Friday held that the primary charge against her, of owning the two-wheeler that was used for the blast, was ruled out during the NIA's re-investigation. According to the NIA's investigation, while Thakur is the registered owner of the motorcycle found at the site of the blast, that in itself was not sufficient to support the charge against her of involvement in the blast conspiracy.

Even assuming the said motorcycle was found at the place of the incident, the fact that Thakur is the registered owner of it by itself cannot be sufficient in the light of material on record brought by the prosecution to hold the charge against her, the NIA has contended in its reply.

The NIA further maintained that the investigation conducted by the agency, after an investigation done by the Maharashra Anti Terrorism Squad, revealed that the witnesses who had deposed against Thakur had done so under duress.

The court has adjourned the matter to May 29, when it is likely to frame charges against all the accused in the Malegaon 2008 blast case.

Analysis

The Malegaon 2008 blast case, like the Malegaon 2006 blast case, has seen several flip-flops from the investigation agencies involved. In both cases, while the initial investigation agency was the Maharashtra ATS, further investigation was later carried out by the NIA, which either arrested a different set of accused, as in the 2006 case, or contradicted the ATS charges against some accused, as in the 2008 case.

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