The Bombay high court on Monday once again slapped the stringent Maharashtra Control Organised Crime Act on the members of the radical Hindu outfit that includes Pragya Singh Thakur, aka, Sadhvi Purnachetnanand, and the other 10 accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case. The trial of the case will now resume before a special MCOCA court in Mumbai.
The accused were transferred to the Nashik Jail after the special court dropped the MCOCA charges against them in 2009 and directed that the accused would face a trial under the Indian Penal Code alone.
Justice B.H. Marlapalle and Justice Anoop Mohta gave the ruling on an appeal by the state government in the HC challenging the orders of the special court. The high court said that the application of MCOCA by the prosecution was justified. The 4,000-page chargesheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because Muslims form a sizeable part of its population. It named the sadhvi, Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit and Swami Dayanand Pandey as the main conspirators, while the planter is still absconding.
The chargesheet had further alleged it was Pandey who had instructed Purohit to arrange for RDX while the sadhvi owned the motorcycle used in the blast.
Ajay Rahirkar, another accused, allegedly organised finances for the terror act.