Malegaon blast: SC gives 2 more months to decide on bail pleas

The Supreme Court on Monday granted two more months to a special court in Maharashtra to hear and decide on the bail applications of the accused persons in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, including Lt Col SP Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

“Two months more time is given,” a Bench of justices J Chelameswar and AM Sapre said when Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta informed it that the Presiding Officer of the special MCOCA court has sought a two-month extension.

The ASG said the trial judge has recently taken over and hence more time be granted. The court also said that by its order dated April 15, it had already given a month time to "dispose of the bail applications expeditiously, preferably within one month from the date of his/her assumption of office as special judge".

The Apex court in its order had said that barring accused Rakesh D Dhawade, who is alleged to be involved in other similar cases in Parbhani and Jalna before the Malegaon blast, the provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) would not be considered while dealing with the bail applications of other accused persons.

It had said that there were "considerable doubts" about the involvement of other accused in Parbhani and Jalna blasts cases and "therefore, they are entitled for their bail applications to be considered on merits". The SC had also asked the special court to commence trial at the earliest and conclude it expeditiously noting that the matter pertains to 2008. While dealing with the issue of expeditious trial of the seven-year-old case, the Bench had noted that "no officer has been posted for the special court as on date." 

The accused persons had moved the apex court challenging denial of bail by the Bombay HC. They had also sought direction against the HC order restoring the charges under the stringent anti-organised crime law MCOCA.