CBI team in Nashik to quiz Malegaon blast accused

Armed with court nod, a CBI team from Hyderabad today visited Nashik Road Central Jail and began questioning the Malegaon blast accused in the light of  some leads emerging in the investigations into the 2007 bomb explosion in a mosque in the Andhra Pradesh capital. 

CBI officials arrived in the prison this morning, jail sources said.

The three-member team of the CBI, which is probing the Mecca Masjid bombing in Hyderabad, was yesterday permitted by a local court to interrogate the 11 Malegaon blast accused lodged in the jail, between April 30 and May 5.

The accused include Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and army officer Prasad Purohit who are in judicial custody. The Sadhvi is undergoing treatment in an ayurveda hospital here.

Investigations into the Hyderabad blast have revealed cellphone conversation between Ramaji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, absconding accused in the Malegaon case, and one Chhapari, who has been arrested for the mosque bombings, CBI has said in its application to the court here.

Nine people were killed in the mosque blast in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007.