Today a special NIA Court in Mumbai has directed all the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case to be present before the Court on Dec 19, the day when the case will be taken up for hearing next. The case runs around a blast near a Mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra in 2018 when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque.
Today out of all 7 accused only 3 were present in the court. They were- LT Col Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni & Ajay Rahirkar. The court took notice of their presence and asked all 7 to be present on the next hearing. Other accused in the case are- BJP MP Pragya Thakur retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi & Sudhakar Chaturvedi
All of them are charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act & the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The charges put on them also include- “Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) & 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA & Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) & 153(a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.”
