Malegaon 2006 blasts: Court discharges all eight Muslim accused

The 2006 Malegaon blasts that took place in a mosque, graveyard and a market, left 37 dead and over a 100 injured

A special court on Monday discharged all eight Muslim men, including one deceased, who were charge sheeted in the 2006 Malegaon serial blasts case, a defence lawyer said.

"The Special MCOCA Court's verdict came in the afternoon on the discharge application filed by all the nine accused in that case. They have been discharged," advocate Shahid Nadeem Ansari told IANS.

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Of the nine accused, Shabbir Ahmed died in an accident a few months back, he added.

The eight discharged were: Noorul Huda, Raees Ahmed, Salman Farsi, Farokh Magdumi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali, Asif Khan, Mohammed Zahid and Abrar Ahmed, lawyer Ansari said.

They were arrested and later charge-sheeted for the 2006 Malegaon blasts which left 37 dead and over a 100 injured. They were subsequently freed on bail in November 2011.

The blasts case has taken various twists and turns with the Maharashtra ATS arresting nine Muslim men, accusing them of belonging to the the banned Students Islamic Movement of India or SIMI. The ATS alleged that these men carried out the blasts with the help of the Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-tayyaba. 

But later when the National Investigation Agency or NIA took over the case in 2001, they booked another set of accused owing allegiance to a group called Abhinav Bharat.