Sadhvi Pragya moves HC for bail

Nagpur: After her bail plea was rejected by the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in June, Malegaon blasts prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has moved the high court here. She filed a bail application in the Bombay High Court through city-based senior lawyer Avinash Gupta and Akash Gupta contending that despite being given a clean chit by the same agency, her bail plea was rejected.The case is likely to come up before a division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice PD Naik this week.
The petitioner was accused of having carried out deadly bomb blasts in Malegaon on September 29, 2008, that led to killing of eight persons while injuring over hundred others. She was arrested along with two other accomplices. All of them were believed to be trained by two former army officers in a prominent city-based school. Even the plot was believed to be in hatched during the training period. TOI had reported it in detail in November 2008.
Interestingly, when NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet on May 13, it dropped MCOCA charges against Sadhvi and five others, who were kept behind bars all these years under previous UPA regime. The agency found evidence against her to be weakest and unsubstantial. It said the motorcycle registered in her name was used by an absconding accused Ramji.
The turnaround came after the change of guard at the Centre where BJP-led NDA government assumed power in 2014. In June, special NIA court in Mumbai, presided over by SD Tekale, dismissed petitioner’s bail plea which she decided to challenge in the high court, according to petitioner’s lawyer Akash Gupta.