Lt. Col. Purohit, one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case outside Mumbai Session Court on Thursday (July 31, 2025).
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Seventeen years after the blast, a special NIA court in Mumbai has acquitted all the seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Special Judge A.K. Lahoti delivered the verdict.
The NIA court, in its judgment, said that the prosecution ‘failed to prove the case’ and that the accused ‘deserved the benefit of doubt’.
The provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) were not applicable to the case, the court said.
The judge observed that the prosecution could not prove that the bike to which the bomb was allegedly strapped, belonged to Pragya Thakur.
Ms. Thakur had turned into a sansyasi two years before the bomb blast took place in Malegaon. She had already given up all the material things in life before the incident happened, the court said.
It’s hard to establish prosecution’s claims that there were any conspiracy between the accused. There is no evidence to prove the claims that an organisation named Abhinav Bharat that was founded by Pragya Thakur and Col. Purohit, used the funds generated through the organisation to execute the bomb blast, the court further observed.
The court also said there was no evidence to prove that Lt. Col Purohit had sourced RDX from Kashmir and assembled the bomb at his residence.
On September 29, 2008, a bomb exploded in Malegaon, Nashik district, killing 10 and injuring over 100 people. A case was filed by the Azad Nagar police station, but later re-registered by the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) in November 2008 and charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were applied.
In January 2009, the ATS filed its first chargesheet followed it with a supplementary chargesheet in April 2011.
However, in April 2011, the Ministry of Home Affairs suo motu directed the NIA to take up further investigation of the case.
In May 2016, the NIA had filed its second supplementary chargesheet and dropped MCOCA charges against former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.
In December 2017, Special Judge S.D. Tekale dropped MCOCA charges and charged them under Sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
All the accused are currently on bail.
Published – July 31, 2025 11:40 am is
