India’s Owaisi Slams Modi Govt Over Malegaon Blast Acquittals, Demands Supreme Court Appeal
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has lashed out at the Indian government over what he described as “hypocrisy” in handling terrorism cases, following the acquittal of all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case. Addressing journalists at the Indian Parliament complex on Thursday, Owaisi questioned whether the Narendra Modi-led central government and the Maharashtra state administration would challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court. “Will the Modi government and the Maharashtra government challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court? Or will they continue their hypocrisy on terrorism?” Owaisi asked. The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai earlier this week acquitted all accused, including BJP Member of Parliament Pragya Singh Thakur and Indian Army officer Lt Col Prasad Purohit. The blasts, which occurred near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra, in September 2008, killed six people and injured more than 100 others. Calling the investigation process “deeply flawed,” Owaisi pointed out that although the NIA had confirmed the use of military-grade RDX in the attack, no accountability had been established regarding its origin. “Seventeen years later, there are no answers. There is no closure,” he said. Owaisi invoked the memory of slain police officer Hemant Karkare, who initially led the probe while serving as head of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), before the case was transferred to the NIA. “What happened to Karkare’s investigation? Why was it derailed?” he asked. Drawing parallels with other high-profile terror cases, the AIMIM president referred to the Samjhauta Express bombing, the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, the Ajmer Sharif Dargah blast, and the 2006 Malegaon attack. He alleged that Muslims were falsely implicated in several of these incidents and later discharged after years of incarceration and torture. “There cannot be two approaches to terrorism,” he said. “Justice has been denied not just in Malegaon but across cases where closure remains elusive for victims’ families.” Owaisi also recalled the 2015 claim by then-special prosecutor Rohini Salian that she was pressured to go soft on the accused, and cited the NIA’s 2017 move to reintroduce Thakur’s name in the chargesheet as evidence of systemic inconsistencies. In a scathing critique of the BJP’s alleged dismissal of “saffron terror” narratives, Owaisi rhetorically asked, “Was the person who killed Mahatma Gandhi Chinese? Who assassinated Rajiv Gandhi? Who killed Indira Gandhi?” Calling on the government to come clean on its next steps, he concluded: “If the real culprits are roaming free, the country has the right to know who bombed Malegaon in 2008.
India court acquits all accused including Sadhvi in 2008 Malegaon blast case, citing lack of evidence
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Monday acquitted all seven accused, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, citing insufficient evidence and procedural lapses in the investigation. The court observed that the prosecution failed to establish the charges against the accused, adding that critical lapses by the investigating agencies had weakened the case beyond repair. The September 29, 2008 explosion in Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in Maharashtra, killed six people and injured over a hundred. The case drew nationwide attention due to its political and religious overtones, and the trial lasted for over 17 years. Reading out the verdict, the judge noted that the prosecution could not conclusively prove whether the bomb was planted on a motorcycle. No evidence linked Col. Purohit to either assembling or supplying the explosive device, and it remained unclear who had placed the bomb. Key forensic evidence, including fingerprints from the blast site and the motorcycle chassis number, was either not collected or lost. Investigators also failed to establish whether the vehicle used for the bombing was registered in Thakur’s name. The court said the panchanama — a legal description of the crime scene — was not conducted properly, and experts failed to preserve crucial material evidence. “No conviction can be made solely on the basis of suspicion,” the court said, reiterating that terrorism has no religion. It also noted that no conclusive voice tests or credible proof of alleged secret meetings were presented during trial. All seven accused were declared not guilty by the court.
