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

Mumbai: The 2008 Malegaon blast could have been carried out by the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the lawyer of prime accused and BJP leader Pragya Thakur argued before a special court here on Thursday.

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 J P Mishra.

The defence is currently making final arguments in the case in the court of A K Lahoti, a special judge for the National Investigation Agency cases.

Six people were killed and over 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 police, preventing them from reaching the blast site, advocate Mishra claimed.

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

A SIMI office was located near the 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.

The investigators had claimed that the motorcycle belonged to Thakur.

Mishra will continue his arguments on Friday.

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

Besides Thakur who was BJP MP from Bhopal from 2019 to 2024, 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 case was initially probed by the Anti Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra Police before being transferred to the NIA in 2011.

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