Six family members of people who died in the 2008
Malegaon bomb blast have moved the Bombay High Court, challenging a special
court judgment acquitting the seven accused in the case, including former BJP
MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit.
The appeal, filed on Monday by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed
Bilal and five others through their advocate Mateen Shaikh, sought the HC to
quash the special court judgment.
An explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went
off near a mosque in Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai in
Maharashtra's Nashik district, on September 29, 2008, killing six persons and
injuring 101 others.
The petitioners claimed the order passed by the
special NIA court on July 31 acquitting the seven accused was wrong and bad in
law and hence deserves to be quashed.
The special court in its judgment said mere
suspicion cannot replace real proof and there was no cogent or reliable
evidence to warrant conviction.
Special judge A K Lahoti, presiding over the
National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, had said there was no "reliable
and cogent evidence" against the accused that proved the case beyond
reasonable doubt.
The prosecution's case was that the blast was
carried out by right wing extremists with an intention to terrorise the Muslim
community in the communally sensitive Malegaon town.
The NIA court had in its judgment flagged several
loopholes in the prosecution's case and the investigation carried out, and said
the accused persons deserved the benefit of doubt.
Besides Thakur and Purohit, the accused comprised
Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar
Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.