Sadhvi Pragya's bail plea dismissed by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Friday refused to grant bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thaku, who is facing charges under stringent MCOCA for her alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case.

"The plea that Article 22(2) of the Constitution was violated is based on the averment by the appellant that she was arrested on October 10, 2008.  Factually, this plea has not been found to be correct. The appellant was in fact arrested only on October 23, 2008. The affidavit filed by the appellant on November 17, 2008, on a careful perusal shows that the appellant was not arrested on October 10, 2008," the apex court said.

Dismissing her bail plea, a bench of justices JM Panchal and HL Gokhale said Pragya cannot claim any indefeasible right to bail merely because the charge sheet was not filed within the statutory period of 90 days.

"There is yet another aspect of the matter. The right under Section 167(2)of CrPC to be released on bail if the charge sheet is not filed within 90 days from the date of first remand is not an absolute or indefeasible right," the bench said.

The bench passed the order on a petition filed by Thakur contending Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had failed to file the charge sheet against her within the mandatory 90 days of her arrest on October 23, 2008.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, in Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of Maharashtra. The probe into the blast had brought into focus the alleged involvement of some right-wing Hindu groups.