Category: Featured

In a landmark judgment, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. The court held that the prosecution had failed to present sufficient and credible evidence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Special Judge AK Lahoti stated that the evidence presented by the prosecution was inconsistent and lacked coherence. “Terrorism has no religion, but conviction cannot be based on moral grounds,” the judge emphasized in the ruling. The case stemmed from a blast on September 29, 2008, in Malegaon, Maharashtra, where an improvised explosive device (IED) placed on a motorcycle exploded in a Muslim-majority locality during the holy month of Ramzan. The explosion killed six and injured over 100 people. The court ruled that the prosecution could not conclusively prove that the motorcycle used in the blast belonged to Sadhvi Pragya, as the vehicle’s chassis number was only partially recovered. Moreover, the court noted she had renounced material possessions after becoming a sanyasi two years before the incident. In Lt. Col. Purohit’s case, the court found no credible evidence to support the claim that he had sourced RDX from Kashmir or participated in bomb-making. Though there were financial transactions between Purohit and another accused, Ajay Rahirkar, the funds were used for personal expenses such as home construction and insurance policies, not terrorism-related activities. The court also rejected the prosecution’s theory of a conspiracy among the seven accused. While it acknowledged that six people had died in the blast, it accepted that only 95 were injured—discounting a few manipulated medical certificates submitted during the trial. The case was initially investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which arrested 12 individuals and alleged that the blast was orchestrated by the group Abhinav Bharat. In 2010, the investigation was handed over to the NIA, which filed a supplementary chargesheet in 2016 and suggested dropping MCOCA charges and certain accused due to lack of evidence. Despite this, the court in December 2017 ruled that seven accused—Thakur, Purohit, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sudhakar Dwivedi—would face trial under the IPC, UAPA, and Explosive Substances Act. The trial officially began in December 2018. Over the course of the trial, the prosecution examined 323 witnesses, though 34 turned hostile, and more than 30 witnesses died before they could testify. One of the accused, Sudhakar Dwivedi, even questioned whether a blast had occurred at all, prompting the court to examine over 100 victims and injured individuals. Final arguments concluded in April 2024, and the verdict was reserved for April 19. In its final ruling, the court also directed compensation for victims—₹2 lakh each for the families of the deceased and ₹50,000 each for the injured. Legal Representation: The judgment concludes a politically and socially sensitive case that had drawn nationwide attention for nearly two decades.

Kerala MPs, led by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, staged a protest in Parliament today against the arrest of two Catholic nuns in Chhattisgarh on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion. Notably absent from today’s demonstration was senior party leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who had joined his Kerala colleagues in a similar protest just yesterday. During yesterday’s rally in the Parliament complex, Tharoor held a placard reading “India for all, proud to be one” and told the media, “The nuns are innocent; they must be released. There should not be mob rule in the country. This is the government’s responsibility.” In contrast, today’s protest was led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who condemned the Chhattisgarh police for “manhandling” the nuns and accused the state government of targeting religious minorities. Tharoor’s absence has fueled talk of growing tensions between him and the Congress high command. The former diplomat, celebrated for his oratory skills, was conspicuously left off the party’s list of speakers during the recent Operation Sindoor debate—an omission seized upon by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. Party insiders suggest that when approached to participate, Tharoor declined to “toe the party line,” insisting he would not contradict his own publicly stated views merely for the sake of party messaging. In recent months, Tharoor has drawn criticism from within the Congress for praising the BJP government’s swift response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. He has repeatedly emphasized that his “first loyalty” is to the nation, not any political party, arguing that parties are simply “a means of making the nation better” in their own ways. His remarks reportedly clashed with the Congress leadership’s efforts to confront the government over allegations of intelligence failures and the sudden ceasefire called by U.S. President Donald Trump. Background on the Nuns’ ArrestLast week, two Kerala-based Catholic nuns traveling through Chhattisgarh’s Durg station were apprehended by local authorities after Bajrang Dal activists accused them of trafficking three minor tribal girls under the guise of offering jobs and education. They have since been charged under Section 143 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (human trafficking) and under the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act (forced conversion). The arrests have prompted outrage from opposition parties, Christian organizations, and even the BJP’s Kerala unit, with Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar calling for the nuns’ immediate release and safe return.