Court allows Pragya Thakur's plea for exemption from appearance

A Mumbai court has allowed the application of Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur for exemption from appearance on Saturday in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

The court had on June 3 directed Thakur and all other accused in the case to appear before it once a week. Thakur's lawyers had on Friday sought exemption for her from appearing before the Special NIA court today. Her application was transferred to a Mumbai court since the regular Special NIA Judge Vinod Padalkar was on leave today.

It was allowed after her counsel JP Mishra told the court that he had asked her not to appear as Special NIA judge was on leave. Besides the Bhopal MP, the other accused are Lt Col Prasad Purohit, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni and Sudhakar Chaturvedi. They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The charges include Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and Sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.

The accused have also been charged under relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act. On September 29, 2008, six people were killed when a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra's Malegaon city.

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