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Malegaon:
In a major development in the 2006 Malegaon blast case,
the Special MCOCA Court today granted bail to all the nine Muslim
accused who were in jail since 2006/2007. The Muslim youth however
have to be in jail for few more days as their papers are still to
be prepared.
"The Special MCOCA Court - few hours
after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed its reply
stating that it would not oppose the bail application, ordered to
release all the nine accused from jail", Advocate Nehal Ansari who is in
Mumbai said to ummid.com on phone.
"The court ordered them to release
on the surety of 50,000 each", he said.
"The accused however will be
released from jail only after Tuesday because their papers and
solvency would be prepared by then", he said.
Earlier, the National Investigation
Agency (NIA) had in the morning told the special court that it did
not have any objections if they are released on bail.
"The National Investigation Agency
(NIA) in a written response to the bail applications filed by the
nine accused today informed the Special MCOCA Court that it does
not have any objection if the accused are released on bail", one
of the defence counsels Advocate Nehal Ansari who is in
Mumbai said to ummid.com on phone.
"The NIA was also expected to file
today the progress report on its investigations but it said it
would file the complete report in later days", Advocate Ansari
said.
"The NIA in its reply said that
their investigations are still on and till now they have not found
anything against these Muslim men and there is no reason left to
keep them behind bar", he added.
A series of blasts struck
Malegaon on September 08 in 2006 ahead of Shab-e-Barat, a
Muslim festival when thousands of people were busy offering Friday
prayers at the Hamidia Masjid. Another blast occurred at nearby
Mushawerat chowk few minutes later. 37 people were killed and
more than 300 were injured in the blasts, most of them being
children.
The MCOCA Court had on October 31
directed the NIA t file its response to the bail applications
filed separately by the eight accused and Abrar Ahmed on November
04. However, the case was re-scheduled for today. While eight
accused had filed their bail application on October 01, 2011, Abrar Ahmed filed the bail plea a few days later.
Local Muslims in Malegaon including
the victims since the day one had maintained that the arrested
Muslim men were innocent. They in fact carried one of the longest
campaign in the history of the town demanding arrest of the actual
perpetrators and release of the innocents.
The 2006 Malegaon blast case was
earlier investigated by the Maharashtra ATS which had
charge-sheeted the nine Muslim youth for allegedly conspiring the
attacks.
The case was later handed over to the CBI and later to
the NIA.
Earlier, the case took a surprising turn when Swami Aseemanand, allegedly involved in Ajmer, Mecca Masjid and
Samjhuata Express blasts, confessed that Hindu extremists, some of
them already wanted in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, were
also behind the 2006 Malegaon blast.
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