By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,
The much anticipated bail application of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in Malegaon 2008 blasts case came to be rejected on Tuesday by the special NIA court, Mumbai. The rejection order is a huge set back to Thakur as well as NIA that has provided clean chit to her on May 13, revoked MCOCA charges from the case and did not object her bail.
Following are the highlights of the bail order by Special NIA judge S D Tekale :
1. Sadhvi applied for fresh bail on the ground of clean chit provided by NIA but the court did not find change in circumstances to consider bail application and said, “…after considering both the reports i.e. report of NIA as well as ATS it cannot be said that due to filing of further report by NIA there is any change in the circumstance so as to say that there is no reasonable ground for believing that accusation against the applicant is prima facie true.”
2. The court said that the NIA, which took over the case in 2011, launched a fresh investigation instead of taking forward ATS’s work on the case. The court said, “From the analysis made by the investigating officer of NIA it appears that in the name of further investigation without collecting the new material on the basis of statements of witnesses recorded by ATS he came to the conclusion contrary to the conclusion already drawn by this court as well as the Hon’ble High Court. Certainly this cannot be said as a change in the circumstance.”
3. The court also said “(applicant) cannot avoid her connection with the motorcycle registered in her name and used in the blast. At this prima facie stage, the fact of the ownership of the motorcycle cannot be ignored.”
4. The court further said that even after re-recording of witness statements who retracted their earlier statements to ATS, NIA had “strongly” objected bail of Sadhvi on October 2015. It said, “Despite these facts for the reasons best known to the prosecution at that time NIA had strongly resisted the bail application of the applicant without relying the statements of above witnesses before the investigating officer of NIA.”
5. It also said that NIA is also in agreement with the ATS officers that in Bhopal meeting at Sri Ram Temple this applicant was present where accused discussed to overawe the government, rejected Indian Constituition and wanted to establish Hindu Rashtra.
6. The court pointed out that even if prosecution does not object, it is the responsibility of court to evaluate if primae facie case exists or not. It said, “…it is mandatory on the part of the court to see whether there are reasonable grounds for believing that accusation against the accused is prima facie true, irrespective of the fact that public prosecutor resisted the application for bail or not.”
7. At the end it said, “In view of these reasons, now only because prosecution i.e. NIA has given no objection it is difficult to accept the prayer of the applicant. In view of all above discussion, it is clear that the applicant is not entitled to be released on bail.”
Related:
Hypocrisy of Maharashtra govt: Opposes NIA’s clean chit to Muslims, accepts it for Hindu radicals
Malegaon 2008 Blasts victim files protest application against NIA’s charge sheet
Two years ago, Sadhvi was principle conspirator for NIA. What changed now?
NIA gives clean chit to Sadhvi and others without conducting custodial interrogation
Malegaon 2008 Blasts: HC and SC accepted MCOCA then why did NIA drop it?