Pragya Thakur has demanded to be exempted from appearing daily in court, making her health the basis.
BJP leader and MP from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, accused in the 2008 blast case in Malegaon, Maharashtra, appeared in the NIA special court on 4 January. The court has postponed the proceedings till 5 January. Now, Pragya Thakur has demanded exemption from appearing in court everyday, based on his health and safety. The court has asked the BJP MP to submit an application in this regard and has also told that whenever the court orders they will have to be present in the court.
Explain that BJP leader and MP Pragya Singh Thakur is one of the main accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Accusations were made on 7 people
A special court of NIA had framed charges in the Malegaon blast case against Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and five others for spreading terror. Out of the 12 main accused in the case, charges were framed against seven under UAPA.
Apart from Purohit and Thakur, the five other accused are former Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.
Pragya got a clean chit in 2016
The investigation of the case was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the ATS in 2011. The NIA gave Thakur a ‘clean chit’ in its first supplementary charge sheet filed in 2016.
Thakur based the NIA’s plea to request the special court to discharge the charges, but on December 27, 2017, the court rejected Thakur’s plea. The court had said that the vehicle used in the blast belonged to Thakur and in the RTO records is in the name of Thakur.
On September 29, 2008, at least six people were killed and more than 100 people were injured in a motorcycle bomb blast outside a mosque in Muslim-dominated Malegaon in Nashik district. NIA has been investigating the case since 2011.
