Malegaon blast case: Pragya Thakur, accused to appear before NIA Court

BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and other accused in 2008 Malegaon blast case have been asked to appear before the Special NIA Court on Monday.

Pragya's lawyer, advocate JP Mishra, confirmed that she will be appearing today.

Earlier on December 19, Mishra had stated that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is delaying the trial in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and not them.

Apart from Thakur, LT Col Purohit, Chaturvedi and Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi are also accused in the case.

Notably, four out of the seven accused were present before the court. Three accused persons, including Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and Sudhakar Chaturvedi did not appear before the special NIA court on December 19.

They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The charges include Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153(a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.