Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to four accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case.
A division bench of Justices Indrajit Mahant and A. M. Badar granted bail to Dhan Singh, Lokesh Sharma, Manohar Narwaria and Rajendra Chaudhary.
“The petitions are allowed. The applicants shall be released on a cash bail of ₹50,000. They shall attend the special court on each day during the trial and shall not tamper with evidence or contact witnesses,” the bench said.
The four, who are in jail since their arrest on December 29, 2012, had approached the High Court in 2016 after a special court rejected their bail pleas in June in the same year.
The serial bomb blasts outside a cemetery near Hamidia mosque at Malegaon near Nashik on September 8, 2006, claimed 37 lives and injured over 100 people.
The accused were charged under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention)Act and the Indian Penal Code. They have also been charged under relevant sections of the Explosives Substances Act.
Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad, which first probed the case, had initially arrested nine people. The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which followed the same line of investigation.
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When the probe was taken over by the National Investigation Agency later, it decided to drop charges against the nine accused and booked Singh, Sharma, Narwaria, and Chaudhary. The special trial court in 2016 accepted the NIA’s stand and discharged the nine accused.
Apart from seeking bail, Singh and others had challenged the discharge of the nine men. The four accused also challenged the special court’s order rejecting their own applications seeking discharge. Those appeals will be heard by the high court at a later stage.
