SIMI could be behind 2008 Malegaon blast: Pragya Thakur's lawyer argues in court

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The 2008 Malegaon blast could have been carried out by the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the lawyer of prime accused and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pragya Thakur argued before a special court in Mumbai on Thursday, reported news agency PTI.

Local people prevented police from reaching the site immediately after the blast and it could have been done to shield the accused, said Thakur's lawyer, advocate JP Mishra.

The defence is currently making final arguments in the case in the court of AK Lahoti, a special judge for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases.

Six people were killed and more than 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town about 200 km from Mumbai in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.

"Whenever there is an incident such as this, people help the police. However, in this case, immediately after the incident, a huge number of people gathered at the spot and pelted stones at the police, preventing them from reaching the blast site," advocate Mishra claimed.

This could have been done to protect "their people (belonging to SIMI)," he added.

A SIMI office was located near the 2008 Malegaon blast site where bombs were allegedly made, and they could be transporting explosives using the two-wheeler when there was an accidental explosion, the lawyer argued.

Mishra will continue his arguments on Friday.

The investigators had claimed that the motorcycle belonged to Thakur.

During the trial, the prosecution examined 323 prosecution witnesses, of which 34 turned hostile.

Besides Thakur, who was a BJP Member of Parliament (MP) from Bhopal from 2019 to 2024, the other accused in the case are Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni. They are booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code.

The 2008 Malegaon blast case was initially probed by the Anti Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra Police before being transferred to NIA in 2011.

The special court framed charges against the accused on October 30, 2018.

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