2006 Malegaon blast: Bail granted to four accused

Mumbai: The Bombay high court Friday granted bail to four accused in the 2006 Malegaon blast case, holding that there were no reasonable grounds to believe that the accusations against them were prima facie true.

The court also said that the incriminating evidence gathered by investigation agencies against nine others who had earlier been made accused only to be discharged later, wo-uld also have to be “kept in mind” while dealing with the present bail pleas.

A division bench of Justices I.A. Mahanty and A.M. Badar granted bail to Dhan Singh, Lokesh Sharma, Manohar Narwaria and Rajendra Chaudhari. "The applicants shall be released on a cash bail of Rs 50,000. They shall attend the special court each day during the trial and shall not tamper with evidence or contact witnesses," the bench said.

The four, who have been in prison since their arrest in 2013, had approached the high court in 2016 after a special court rejected their bail pleas in June that year. The special NIA court, while rejecting the present four accused persons' bail pleas, had held that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the accusations against them were prima facie true.

The high court Friday noted that the special court should not have ignored the reports submitted by the earlier investigating agencies (ATS and CBI). "The special court is duty-bound to consider all reports, entire records and documents submitted by the Anti-terrorism Squad, CBI as well as the NIA,” the HC said.

The serial bomb blasts outside a cemetery near the Hamidia mosque at Malegaon near Nashik on September 8, 2006, claimed 31 lives and injured over 100 people.