HC tells NIA court to conclude Malegaon blast trial quickly

The Bombay High Court told a special NIA court here on Thursday to conclude the trial in the September, 2008 Malegaon blast case, in which BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur is a prime accused, expeditiously.

Neither the prosecution nor the accused should try and delay the trial, the judges said.

A division bench headed by Justice Ranjit More was hearing a petition filed by Sameer Kulkarni, one of the accused, claiming that the trial was proceeding at a snail's pace as the prosecution summoned only one witness every day.

"If that witness is unable to attend, the whole day is wasted. Even the accused keep filing some or the other application, which leads to adjournments," Kulkarni said.

Sandesh Patil, the lawyer for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), informed the court that so far, 128 prosecution witnesses had deposed, while 369 more were yet to testify.

The court, after hearing the brief arguments, directed the special court to conclude the trial as expeditiously as possible.

"We also do not want anyone, including the prosecution and the accused, to make any attempt to delay the trial proceedings," the court said, disposing of the petition.

Six persons were killed and a hundred others injured when a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a communally-sensitive town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.

Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and the other accused in the case have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code, among other laws.