Malegaon special judge in transfer list as trial nears conclusion

The special judge has been hearing final arguments by the prosecution and the accused for the past few months and was likely to reserve the case for judgment by next week, having asked the arguments to be concluded by April 15.

Lawyer Shahid Nadeem, who represents the intervener in the case, Nisar Ahmed Haji Sayyed Bilal, who lost his son in the blast, said the proposed transfer would cause further delays in the trial.

In March, Nadeem on behalf of Bilal and other victims had written to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, seeking to retain the judge till the trial concludes, apprehensive of his transfer in the general transfers.

“We the victims apprehend that any change in the Presiding Officer may cause an unavoidable delay in the trial as the newly posted Presiding Officer would require to familiarise himself with the entire voluminous chargesheet along with exhibited documents and evidence which is running into thousands of pages,” the letter had said.

The notification announcing the transfers states that the judges under the order of transfer are directed to finish the judgments in cases where hearing has concluded or endeavour to dispose of part-heard cases.

The notification states that the judges who are to be transferred should leave their charge during the vacation period in May and remain present at their new postings on the day of the reopening of courts on June 9.

Seven accused including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, are facing trial for their alleged involvement in the blast which took place in Nashik on September 29, 2008, killing six and injuring over 100. A special court has been designated to hear only this trial so that the case pending for many years can be heard expeditiously and decided upon.

The charges in the case were framed in October 2018 and the first witness was examined on December 2018. After the examination of 140 witnesses till February 2020, the then trial court special judge, V S Padalkar retired. Following that, another trial court judge was appointed, special judge P R Sitre, till March 2022. Special Judge Lahoti has taken over the case from June 2022, and heard the remaining witnesses, statements of the accused and the final arguments made by special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal and the accused’s lawyers.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), the prosecuting agency in the case, had closed its evidence in September 2023, after 323 witnesses deposed, after which the judge recorded statements of the accused and has been hearing the final arguments.

The trial in the case took over ten years to begin for various reasons. Initially probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, the case was transferred to the NIA in 2011. The Central agency filed its supplementary chargesheet in 2016, dropping a few accused. Previous prosecutor Rohini Salian had told The Indian Express in an interview in 2015 that she had been asked ‘to go soft’ in the case by an NIA officer.

The accused too had approached high court and Supreme Court challenging their arrest, as well as the sanction under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They had also challenged the invocation of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, an act against organised crime syndicates.

While MCOCA was dropped against them in 2016, the accused face trial under UAPA, and sections including murder, criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code. The prosecution has claimed that the seven accused planned the blast to spread communal discord. The accused have denied their involvement claiming that they were wrongly implicated and illegally detained and tortured by the ATS.