Mumbai, Jul 31 (PTI) Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said the responsibility of presenting evidence in the Malegaon blast case was with the Union government and the National Investigation Agency.
He was commenting after a special court in Mumbai acquitted all the seven accused in the case noting there was “no reliable and cogent evidence” against them. The verdict came 17 years after an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008 killing six persons and injuring 101 others.
“The Maharashtra ATS (anti terrorism squad) probed the blast case and filed chargesheet. In 2011, the NIA took over the case and in 2014 the government changed (in the state and Centre). If these accused weren’t the culprits, the government from 2014 to 2025 didn’t investigate but continued the case. If it was a fake case, it could have been dropped and reinvestigated,” Chavan told PTI Videos.
“Someone has killed innocent people,” Chavan asserted and said the government owes it to citizens to find out the actual culprits.
It was the responsibility of the (state and Union) government to submit evidence and not that of the Congress or the victims/kin, Chavan added.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra ports and fisheries minister and BJP MLA Nitesh Rane said those who spoke of “saffron terror” must apologise with folded hands and rub their noses at the feet of the acquitted persons who had their 17 years wasted.
Special Judge A K Lahoti, assigned to hear cases of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here, flagged several loopholes in the prosecution’s case and the investigation carried out, and said the accused persons deserved the benefit of doubt.
Besides former BJP MP Pragya Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Purohit, the accused comprised Major Ramesh Upadhyay (Retd), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.
The court directed the government to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to families of the six dead persons and Rs 50,000 to each of the 101 persons injured in the blast. PTI MR BNM
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