Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the seven defendants in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, appeared before the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) special court in Mumbai on Monday.
Thakur’s counsel, JP Mishra’s lawyer, had announced that she would appear on Monday at the NIA case.Mishra had said on December 19 last year that in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, the investigation agency was blocking the trial and not them.
All the accused had been asked by the special court to remain present before him on that day. However, the court appeared only before Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahikar and Sudhakar Dwiwedi. The remaining defendants are Pragya Singh Thakur, Ramesh Upadhayay, Sudhakar Diwedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi — could not appear before the court.
Six people were killed and more than 100 wounded when, on September 29, 2008, an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a city in northern Maharashtra. In October 2018, the court filed terror charges against Purohit, Thakur and five other defendants. In compliance with sections 16 (committing a terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit a terrorist act), they were charged with committing a terrorist act.
They were also convicted under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the related provisions of the Explosive Substances Act under sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to kill), 324 (voluntarily causing harm) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups).
 legislator Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the seven defendants in the 2008 Malegaon blast case,){kind=link}