Malegaon Blasts: Here is why a special court acquitted Pragya Singh Thakur and Col. Purohit

A special NIA court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all seven accused including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon blast case [National Investigation Agency v Pragyasingh Chandrapalsingh Thakur and Ors].

The order was passed by Special Judge AK Lahoti, who held that the prosecution failed to bring any 'cogent evidence' to prove the culpability of the accused.

The case had received significant attention due to the persons arraigned as accused. It included former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit.

Besides them, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sudhakar Dwivedi were the other accused who stood trial.

While a detailed copy of the judgment is awaited, the judge read out the following reasons for acquitting Thakur and Purohit:

Pragya Singh Thakur

- Prosecution failed to prove that the bike on which the bomb was allegedly strapped, belonged to her. Serial number of the two-wheeler's chassis was not completely recovered by the forensic experts and, therefore, the prosecution failed to prove that Thakur was the owner of the two-wheeler in question;

-  Thakur had become a sanyasi and had left all material things two years before the blast;

- No evidence of conspiracy with other accused.

Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit

- There was no evidence to prove that he sourced RDX from Kashmir or that he assembled the bomb;

- Although there were financial transactions between Purohit and another accused Ajay Rahirkar as officials of Abhinav Bharat, the money was used by Purohit only towards the construction of his house and LIC policy and not for any terrorist activity;

- No evidence of conspiracy with other accused.

Read more about the verdict here.