Malegaon 2008 blast case: Mumbai NIA court likely to frame charges against Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit

MUMBAI: A Special NIA court on Wednesday is expected to pronounce its order on framing of charges against 2008 Malegaon blasts case accused, including Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit.

Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast who was granted bail by the Supreme Court on August 21. He was released from the Taloja Jail on August 23.

Six people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nashik district of north Maharashtra.

It was the second such blast in the Muslim-dominated powerloom town which was earlier shaken by a similar blast on September 8, 2006, which claimed 37 lives and injured more than 250.

Initially, the (Malegaon 2008) case was probed by the Maharashtra Police and the Anti-Terrorist Squad, and later in April 2011 it was taken over the National Investigation Agency.

The investigators had charge-sheeted 14 accused in the case, including two - Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange - who are absconding so far. The involvement of some of the accused was found in other terror acts in the country.

Earlier, another prime accused in the case, Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, had been released on bail by the Bombay High Court on health and other grounds after nearly nine years in custody.

A Special NIA court on September 19 granted bail to Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Suhakar Dwivedi, two prime accused in the blast case, on grounds of parity.

The Bombay High Court September 26 granted bail to Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retd), anotehr accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, on grounds of parity.