The seven who came out from the small side opening in the massive gates of the jail housing hundreds of undertrials were: Salman Farsi, Shabir Ahmed, Noorulhuda Doha, Rais Ahmed, Javed Shaikh, Farooque Ansari and Abrar Ahmed.
Two of the accused - Mohammed Ali and Asif Khan - though granted bail continue to remain in jail as they are also facing charges in the 7/11 train serial blasts.
The special court, dealing with Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (Mcoca) on November 5, had agreed to the bail plea made by the accused following National Investigation Agency (NIA) submission that it would “not oppose the bail plea.”
The case of the nine accused belonging to the minority community turned in their favour, when Naba Kumar Sarkar aka Swami Aseemanand confessed before a magistrate last December that Malegaon blasts were allegedly ‘handiwork of people close to RSS pracharaks,’ and not the nine accused.
Not accused
The confession made various religious bodies in Malegaon speak up for the release of the accused languishing in jail. Memoranda and appeals by various bodies brought assurance from the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who in turn asked the accused to file first bail application.
Though initially, the bail was denied as the Malegaon case changed hands from local police Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to NIA, the latter in the subsequent bail application told the court that they had substantial evidence pointing to the involvement of a Hindu supremacist right wing group in the Malegaon blast.
Public prosecutor Rohini Salian, on November 5, informed Mcoca Court Judge Y D Shinde, that NIA after due deliberations has decided “not to oppose the bail applications.”
However, the public prosecutor informed the court that the investigating agency decision to allow the bail applications, “relates only to the charge sheet filed by the previous investigating agencies. However, further investigations are in progress to collect more evidence for arriving at a definite conclusion.”
Genesis
On September 8, 2006, just after Shab-e-Barat or Badi Raat prayers, at around 1.15 pm serial explosions near Hamidia mosque, located adjacent to Bada Kabristan, snuffed out 37 lives and maimed over a 100 people.
Fact file
* Seven out of nine accused granted bail
* Accused spent five years in the Arthur Road Jail
* Two of the accused - Mohammed Ali and Asif Khan- to
remain in jail as they are also accused in 7/11 train blasts
* The blast killed 37 people and injured more than 100