Malegaon Blast trial: MP Pragya Singh Thakur gets emotional in court

Member of Parliament Pragya Singh Thakur got emotional on Tuesday while recording her statement under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) before a Mumbai Court during the trial in the 2008 Malegaon blasts in which she is one of the accused..The special National Investigation Agency court was recording the statement of Thakur along with the seven accusedThakur was given an opportunity to explain the circumstances which are part of the evidence against her..She was asked around 60 questions related to the testimonies of the doctors who had treated the injured and conducted autopsies after the blast and had been asked about Thakur.Thakur got uncomfortable when she was asked questions describing the injuries of the victims, her lawyers JP Mishra and Prashant Maggu told the media later.She got visibly emotional in the witness box. Special judge AK Lahoti then halted the proceedings for 10 minutes to let Thakur calm down. Her examination will continue tomorrow as well..Six people were killed and over 100 injured on September 29, 2008, when an explosive device placed on a motorbike went off near a mosque at Malegaon. The case was initially probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) before it was transferred to NIA in 2011. .The special court then framed charges against Thakur and other accused under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in October 2018. The investigating agency had cited 400 witnesses in its chargesheet; however, 21 of them expired during the trial.The trial commenced almost five years after the prosecution closed its evidence. .NIA had produced 323 witnesses in court out of which 34 had turned hostile. It informed the court that there were no more prosecution witnesses to produce in the case. On September 14, the NIA informed the Court that it had completed the recording of evidence of the accused. Following this, the Court summoned the seven accused to remain present in court so that their statements could be recorded. .Along with Thakur, the other six accused were also present today. They were Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sameer Kulkarni.