Mumbai, July 31 (PTI) A special court, while acquitting all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, has observed it was aware of the frustration and trauma caused by a heinous crime going unpunished and stressed that conviction cannot be based on suspicion sans reliable and cogent evidence.
Strong suspicion cannot take the place of evidence, special Judge A K Lahoti noted, adding that terrorism has no religion.
“Before I conclude, it is necessary to place on record that I am fully aware of the degree of agony, frustration and trauma caused to the society at large, more particularly to the family of the victims by the fact that a heinous crime of this nature has gone unpunished,” the judge said.
However, the law does not permit the court to convict a person solely based on moral conviction or suspicion, the court said.
“Terrorism has no religion because no religion in the world preaches violence. The court of law is not supposed to proceed on popular or predominant public perceptions. The more serious an offence, the higher the degree of proof is needed for conviction,” the judge observed.
The court raised several doubts in the prosecution’s case, including the ownership of the explosive-laden bike and how it was parked in an area cordoned off during Ramzan, the meetings attended by the accused for hatching the alleged conspiracy, and the procurement of RDX.
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 special court absolved former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (Retd), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni of charges under provisions of the UAPA, the Indian Penal Code, and the Arms Act on the benefit of doubt.
The court directed the government to pay a compensation of Rs two lakh each to families of the six dead persons and Rs 50,000 to each of the 101 persons injured in the blast.
The court stated there is also no evidence to prove that explosive substances were transported or stored by Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit in his house or that he had assembled the bomb.
The judge also held that the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) did not apply to the case as there was no proper application of mind before the grant of sanction for the same.
The court said it was not established that the motorbike used in the blast was registered in the name of Thakur, as claimed by the prosecution. It has also not been established that the blast was carried out by the bomb allegedly planted on the bike.
The court further stated that the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses were riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions, and discrepancies undermine the credibility of the prosecution’s case.
“There was no reliable and cogent evidence against the accused that proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge noted.
The prosecution claimed that the blast was carried out by right-wing extremists with the intention to terrorise the Muslim community in the communally sensitive Malegaon in Nashik district.
“Mere suspicion cannot take the place of real proof,” the court said, adding that in the absence of any evidence, the accused persons deserve the benefit of doubt.
The overall evidence does not inspire confidence in the court to convict the accused. There is no reliable and cogent evidence to warrant conviction, the judge said.
The court wondered how Thakur could own the bike when two years before the blast, she had become a ‘sanyasi’ and renounced the material world.
It stated the prosecution jumped to the conclusion about the ownership of the bike based on the restoration of some incomplete alphanumeric numbers from the engine number.
“For proper identification, the chassis number as well as the engine number is required. In the present case, the chassis number was wiped out and it was never restored,” the court observed.
On the prosecution’s case that the accused persons had attended several meetings in Bhopal and Nashik where the conspiracy for the blast was hatched, the court said no witness has supported this theory, and hence, neither the meeting nor the conspiracy could be proved.
The court stated there is evidence to show that money was distributed by the right-wing group ‘Abhinav Bharat’ to fund terrorist activities.
The money seems to have been used by Purohit for the construction of his house, it added.
The court also pointed out the lack of evidence to prove that explosive substances were transported or stored by Purohit in his house or that he had assembled the bomb.
The verdict raised doubts on the medical certificates of some of the injured victims submitted by the prosecution, noting prima facie “manipulation” in some of them.
The judge said the prosecution couldn’t produce evidence on the source of RDX and how it was transported.
“There is no evidence that the accused persons carried out a recce of the spot where the blast took place, and also on how the alleged explosives-laden bike was parked in an area that was cordoned off during the Ramzan festival or who parked it,” the court said. PTI AVI SP GK NSK
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