By Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: After four years in jail, all the 9 accused in Malegaon 2006 blast, got a breather when a special MCOCA court on Saturday granted bail them a bail. They will be released on Tuesday.
The court granted bail to the accused after the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is currently investigating the case, told the court that it won’t oppose the bail pleas of the accused.
“After due deliberations a decision was taken on the basis of facts and circumstances, not to oppose the bail applications of all the nine accused who were earlier arrested and charge-sheeted,” the agency told the MACOCA court.
Explaining its decision not to oppose the bail plea of the accused, the NIA argued before the court, that after the confession made by Swami Aseemanand about the involvement of Right wing Hindutva organisations in the 2006 Malegaon blast, it had recovered new documentary and oral evidences and also “reviewed the evidences” which the CBI and Maharashtra ATS had collected, while investigating the case.
While praying for their bail before the court the nine accused, all of them Muslims, said, “From the confession, it is clear that those responsible for the 2006 Malegaon blasts, are persons far removed from the current accused.”
Highlighting the fact that they have been in jail for the past four years, the accused said “there is no direct evidence of their involvement in the said offence and it was only based on the forcibly-taken confession statement”.
Nine Muslim youths- Salman Farsi, Shabir Ahmed, Noorulhuda Doha, Rais Ahmed, Mohammed Ali, Asif Khan, Javed Sheikh, Faroogue Ansari and Abrar Ahmed — were arrested on the alleged charges of master minding the blast.
The nine accused had applied for bail after Swami Aseemanand’s confession indicated towards right-wing group’s involvement in the blast.
Bomb blasts rocked Hamidia mosque in the Bada Kabristan area in Malegaon, on September 8, 2006 after Shabe-baraat prayer.
The investigation of Malegaon 2006 bomb blast took a radical turn after Swami Aseemanand, who was arrested in Ajmer and Samjhauta blasts, confessed that the 2006 Malegaon blast was also the handiwork of Hindu Rightwing terrorists.
After Assemanand’s confession early this year, there was huge pressure on the investigative agencies as well as the political leadership of the Congress party, both at the center as well as in Maharashtra, to release the Muslim accused. But the case got caught in investigative and legal formalities.
For instance even before the NIA, two other investigative agencies, Maharashtra ATS and the CBI investigated into the case and had also filed chargesheet against the accused but the entire case was demolished after Aseemanand’s confession.
Even after the stand of the CBI, that it was not against the bail plea of the Muslim youths arrested in the case, the MACOCA court refused to grant them bail because of the procedural reason; because in March 2011, the case was transferred to the NIA which started the investigation afresh.