Malegaon blasts: Sadhvi Pragya moves Supreme Court for bail

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who is facing charges under MCOCA for her alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, has moved the Supreme Court for bail.

The petition is listed for hearing tomorrow before a bench comprising justices JM Panchal and Gyan Sudha Mishra.

Pragya's counsel Sushil Balwada, who has filed the petition challenging the denial of bail by the Bombay high court, said he will seek adjournment of the matter for two weeks.

The high court had rejected her bail plea on March 12.

He said Thakur will also file a petition against the July 19 decision of the high court restoring the charges under the stringent anti-organised crime law MCOCA.

The high court had ordered that Pragya and ten other accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case will face trial under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) and had
quashed the decision of the Special Court which had dropped
the charges under the special law.

Among the other high-profile accused in the case is Lt Col S P Purohit. 

The trial of the case will take place at a special MCOCA court. The accused are currently lodged in Nasik Central Prison.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29,
2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in
Nasik district of North Maharashtra. The probe into the blast
has brought into focus some right-wing Hindu groups.

A special MCOCA court on July 31 last year had ruled that Anti Terrorist Squad had wrongly applied MCOCA in the case against Pragya, Purohit and nine others.

The 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was
selected as the blast target because Muslims form sizeable
part of its population. It named Pragya Thakur, Purohit and another accused Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators.

The charge sheet had further alleged it was Pandey who had
instructed Purohit to arrange for RDX while Pragya owned the
motorcycle used in the blast.

Ajay Rahirkar, another accused, allegedly organised funds for the terror act while conspiracy meetings were held at Bhonsala Military School in Nasik. 

Rakesh Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre and Sameer
Kulkarni were the other seven accused.