26 April,2016 08:19 AM IST | | Sailee Dhayalkar
NIA told court its evidence was not in consonance with those of ATS and CBI; the court observed that it was highly unlikely that the accused who are from the Muslim community would have decided to kill their own people
Justice, at long last: (From left) Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Farogh Makhdoomi, Noorul Huda Shamsudoha and Raees Ahmed Rajjab Ali Mansuri rejoice after the verdict yesterday. Pic/Suresh karekera
Nearly 10 years after a series of explosions ripped through a Muslim cemetery and a mosque in Nashik district's Malegaon town, a special NIA court dropped charges against eight Muslims arrested for orchestrating the blasts due to lack of evidence against them.
Justice, at long last: (From left) Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Farogh Makhdoomi, Noorul Huda Shamsudoha and Raees Ahmed Rajjab Ali Mansuri rejoice after the verdict yesterday. Pic/Suresh Karkera
The blasts on September 8, 2006, killed 37 people after Friday prayers and injured 125 others.
The discharge application of the eight - Noorul Huda Shamsudoha, Raees Ahmed Rajjab Ali Mansuri, Dr Salman Farsi, Dr Farogh Makhdoomi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh, Asif Khan Bashir Khan, Mohammed Zahid Abdul Majeed and Abrar Ahmed Ghulam Ahmed - had been pending for the last three years. Special judge VV Patil took them up for arguments in March and April this year.
The eight were granted bail on November 6, 2011, after spending five years in jail. However, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh and Asif Khan Bashir Khan are serving their sentence in the July 11, 2006, blasts case. Another accused, Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah, died while out on bail.
Probe changed hands
The local police transferred the case to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on October 23, 2006. Soon after, it arrested nine Muslim youths, suspected to have links with the Students Islamic Movement of India, for their role in the blasts and filed a chargesheet against them.
They were charged under sections 120(b)(conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, and sections 3 (unlawful association) and 7 (power to use funds of an unlawful organisation) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
On February 13, 2007, the CBI took over the investigation and filed a supplementary chargesheet, naming the same set of youths. The probe once again changed hands on April 6, 2011 - this time to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which arrested another set of people belonging to a right-wing outfit.
The NIA's case hinged on the claims of Swami Aseemanand, who had in his statement before the magistrate court, Delhi, in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast of 2007 said Sunil Joshi (an accused in the Mecca Masjid blast who is now dead) had told him that the Malegaon blasts were handiwork of his boys and reiterated the same during Diwali festivities. The agency's probe found that members of a right-wing outfit - Manohar Nawaria, Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Shiv Singh, Lokesh Sharma, Ramchandra Kalsangra, Ramesh Venkat Mahalkar, Sandeep Dange and few others - hatched a plan between January and September 2006 to launch terror attacks across India, specifically in Malegaon. Their investigation revealed that Nawaria, Chaudhary, Dhan Singh and Kalsangra had planted the bombs at Malegaon.
Based on its findings, the NIA told the court, in response to the discharge application, that it had no evidence against the Muslim youths, and that evidence collected by it was not in consonance with those of the ATS and the CBI. It also said the confessions of the eight youths were taken by the ATS under duress. The NIA said the ATS and CBI based their probe on the recovery of a fake bomb on September 13, 2006, which they linked with the nine Muslim youths.
Nawaria, Chaudhary, Dhan Singh and Kalsangra will continue to face trial in the case.
