Malegaon Blast: NIA Court Begins Recording Statements Of MP Pragya Thakur, Six Other Accused

Thakur and six others are accused under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC regarding the 2008 Malegaon Blast which resulted in six deaths and left over a 100 people injured. The LML Freedom Motorcycle used in the blast was registered in Thakur’s name.

Special NIA judge AK Lahoti divided the seven accused in two batches and asked them a total of sixty questions.

Under Sections 313 of the CrPC the accused is given a chance to justify the evidence recorded in the court against him/ her. After this stage the defence adduces evidence, if any, followed by arguments and final judgement.

During previous proceedings the accused had sought advance copies of the questions framed by the judge.

On Tuesday, a copy of the questions for the day were given to the accused in advance. Thakur seated in the witness box apparently got emotional and the proceedings were halted for around ten minutes.

Other accused are Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.

On Tuesday, the court asked Thakur and others 60 questions related to testimonies of doctors who had conducted the post portmen of the deceased and treated the injured.

The response to all the questions was ‘I don't know’.

The process to record the statements will continue on Wednesday.

The case was initially probed by the Anti Terror Squad (ATS), Maharashtra, before being transferred to NIA 2011.

The special court had on October 30, 2018 framed charges in the case against seven accused under the stringent sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Following framing of charges, the trial in the case began in December 2018 with examination of the first witness in the case.

During the course of five years, 323 prosecution witnesses were examined of which 34 had turned hostile.