New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency is scrutinising the Bombay High Court order discharging four accused in the 2006 Malegaon blast case, but is unlikely to appeal against it, sources said. The federal agency had earlier not challenged the acquittals in the 2007 Samjhauta train blast case, including that of Swami Aseemanand, who was released in 2019, among others.
On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court discharged four accused - Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Manohar Ram Singh Narwaria and Lokesh Sharma - noting that there was insufficient evidence to put them on trial.
They were charged under provisions of the Indian Penal Code for murder and criminal conspiracy, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The HC quashed the special court's September 2025 order that had framed charges against the four accused, despite opposition from the NIA.
On September 8, 2006, four bombs exploded in Malegaon town in Maharashtra's Nashik district, three within the premises of Hamidia Masjid and Bada Kabrastan shortly after Friday prayers, and a fourth at Mushawarat Chowk, killing 31 people and injuring 312 others.
A bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Shyam Chandak, in its judgement, said NIA had "completely ignored" the probe and charge sheet filed by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), which provided a vivid narration of the entire planning by nine Muslim men initially arrested in the case.
The two-decade-old case has seen multiple twists and turns, with initial investigators claiming the conspiracy was hatched by the Muslim accused, while NIA, which later took over the probe, alleged that right-wing extremists were behind the explosions.
"The case seems to have reached a dead end. The diagonally opposite stories in the charge sheets filed by ATS and NIA lead nowhere," the high court observed.
The court said ATS had collected incriminating evidence from the site, including forensic evidence showing traces of RDX in soil samples from the blast site and a godown linked to one of the accused. "For framing charges in serious offences such as murder, which may invite capital punishment, the trial court must be on guard to see whether there is sufficient material to proceed against the accused," the high court observed.
There is no explanation as to how evidence collected by ATS and CBI can be ignored by the trial court, it added. "As things stand today, there are two contradictory versions of the incident, and both stories floated by ATS and NIA cannot be reconciled by any stretch of imagination," the court noted.
- With agency inputs
On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court discharged four accused - Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Manohar Ram Singh Narwaria and Lokesh Sharma - noting that there was insufficient evidence to put them on trial.
They were charged under provisions of the Indian Penal Code for murder and criminal conspiracy, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The HC quashed the special court's September 2025 order that had framed charges against the four accused, despite opposition from the NIA.
On September 8, 2006, four bombs exploded in Malegaon town in Maharashtra's Nashik district, three within the premises of Hamidia Masjid and Bada Kabrastan shortly after Friday prayers, and a fourth at Mushawarat Chowk, killing 31 people and injuring 312 others.
A bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Shyam Chandak, in its judgement, said NIA had "completely ignored" the probe and charge sheet filed by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), which provided a vivid narration of the entire planning by nine Muslim men initially arrested in the case.
The two-decade-old case has seen multiple twists and turns, with initial investigators claiming the conspiracy was hatched by the Muslim accused, while NIA, which later took over the probe, alleged that right-wing extremists were behind the explosions.
"The case seems to have reached a dead end. The diagonally opposite stories in the charge sheets filed by ATS and NIA lead nowhere," the high court observed.
The court said ATS had collected incriminating evidence from the site, including forensic evidence showing traces of RDX in soil samples from the blast site and a godown linked to one of the accused. "For framing charges in serious offences such as murder, which may invite capital punishment, the trial court must be on guard to see whether there is sufficient material to proceed against the accused," the high court observed.
There is no explanation as to how evidence collected by ATS and CBI can be ignored by the trial court, it added. "As things stand today, there are two contradictory versions of the incident, and both stories floated by ATS and NIA cannot be reconciled by any stretch of imagination," the court noted.
- With agency inputs
