Malegaon blast: Court reserves order on UAPA

Mumbai: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday reserved order till October 19 on the application filed by the accused challenging the applicability of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on Malegaon 2008 bomb blast case.

“We have completed our arguments on the applicability of UAPA on Malegaon 2008 bomb blast case today and the judge has reserved order till October 19,” said special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal.

The special judge V.S. Padalkar would frame charges against the accused once the issue of applicability of UAPA is decided and the trial would begin only after charges are framed.

Lt Col. Prasad Purohit, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni and other accused have challenged the applicability of provisions of UAPA on the ground of sanction. According to them, the sanction to prosecute them under UAPA was given without appointment of an appropriate authority.

On the other hand advocate Rasal has justified the sanction and said that the sanction was valid. He also pointed out that this point has been raised by the accused in the past too and has been decided. He argued that the HC has observed that the trial court could consider the point of sanction during the trial so the trial court should commence the trial after framing the charges.

Seven persons were killed and nearly 100 others injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle had exploded in Malegaon town of Nashik district on September 29, 2008.