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Mumbai:
A particular NIA courtroom in Mumbai on Thursday stated the trial in 2008 Malegaon blast case will resume from Friday and directed all of the seven accused to stay current within the courtroom on December 19.
Special NIA courtroom decide PR Sitre had earlier directed all of the accused within the case, together with BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, to stay current within the courtroom on Thursday.
However, Pragya Thakur, Ramesh Upadhayay, Sudhakar Diwedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi didn’t seem within the courtroom.
Pragya Thakur had appeared earlier than the courtroom in June final 12 months after it ordered the seven accused to stay current as soon as every week. She later sought exemption from look on varied events since then.
Lt Col Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni and Ajay Rahikar had been current earlier than the decide on Thursday.
The attorneys of the opposite 4 accused advised the courtroom that their purchasers had been absent as a result of COVID-19 scenario.
The courtroom then directed all of the accused to be current earlier than it on December 19.
It stated the trial within the case, which is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), will resume from Friday.
Six folks had been killed and over 100 others injured when an explosive system strapped on a motorbike went off close to a mosque in Malegaon, a city about 200 km from Mumbai in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.
The courtroom had framed terror costs towards Prasad Purohit, Pragya Thakur and 5 different accused in October 2018.
The trial within the case couldn’t proceed since March this 12 months as regular functioning of the courts was hampered as a result of COVID-19 scenario.
Responding to a plea in search of day-to-day trial within the case, the probe company had earlier advised the courtroom that it was making all efforts to expedite the case.
The trial within the case was additionally delayed because of retirement of the earlier decide VS Padalkar, it had stated.
As per the NIA, round 140 witnesses out of 400 have been already been examined within the case.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court on Thursday clarified that it has not stayed the trial within the Malegaon blast case, and stated the trial should go on.
A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik was listening to a plea filed by Lt Col Prasad Purohit, in search of that costs towards him be quashed.
Prasad Purohit’s lawyer sought adjournment on the bottom that senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi was not out there on Thursday.
The courtroom then adjourned the matter until December 14.
The bench sought to know at what stage is the trial earlier than the particular NIA courtroom.
NIA’s advocate Sandesh Patil advised the excessive courtroom that the trial will begin on a day-to-day foundation from Thursday and the accused individuals and a few witnesses have been summoned.
“We have never said that the trial is stayed. The trial must continue,” Justice Shinde stated.
The courtroom famous that there are 400 prosecution witnesses, of whom solely 140 have been examined to this point.
Prasad Purohit, in his plea filed in September this 12 months, sought that costs towards him be quashed, for the reason that NIA had did not get a previous sanction beneath Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) Section 197.
Section 197 of the CrPC lays down the process for prosecution of public servants and mandates {that a} prior sanction be sought from the federal government.
Prasad Purohit stated within the absence of prior sanction, the trial courtroom could not have taken cognisance of the costs.
As per the plea, Prasad Purohit was working for the Indian Army’s navy intelligence unit and had attended the alleged conspiracy conferences earlier than the blast as a part of “discharging his duties”.
The NIA had opposed the plea, saying Prasad Purohit attended the conferences in his private capability and never as a part of discharging his duties.
Prasad Purohit, who was arrested in 2009, was reinstated within the Army in 2017 after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
The accused within the case have been charged beneath Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
They have additionally been charged beneath Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 120 (b) (legal conspiracy), 302 (homicide), 307 (try and homicide), 324 (voluntarily inflicting harm) and 153 (a) (selling enmity between two spiritual teams), and related provisions of the Explosive Substances Act.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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