NEW DELHI, India: A court in India today acquitted all seven accused in a bomb blast 17 years ago in Maharashtra state’s Malegaon town.
The blast in September 2008 killed at least six people and injured about 100 in Malegaon.
The court said it found no reliable evidence against the accused, who included Pragya Singh Thakur, a former Member of Parliament (MP) belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, an army officer.
The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai found no evidence that Abhinav Bharat, founded in Pune in Maharashtra by Thakur and Purohit, used its funds for terror activities, according to the judgement reported by the Indian media today.
The NIA took over the case in 2011 from Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
One of the accused was freed on bail in 2011 while six others got bail in 2017. – BERNAMA
