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Malegaon:
The eight accused in jail facing allegations of masterminding the
September 2006 Malegaon blast have filed today a fresh application
seeking bail in the Special MCOCA Court in Mumbai. Their earlier
bail-application was rejected by the same court in March.
According to Advocate SS Shaikh, the
eight Muslim accused filed the fresh bail application in the court
when hearing of their case began today in the morning.
The Magistrate has slated the next
hearing on October 31, 2011.
Bail application of Abrar Ahmed, the
ninth accused facing the same charges, would be filed in a day or
two.
"There are some technical problems
in Abrar's case. Hence his bail application could not be filed
today. It will be filed in a day or two", Advocate Shaikh said
while speaking to ummid.com.
Abrar Ahmed was approver in the case
but later turned hostile. He blamed then Superintendent of Police
Rajwardhan and few other ATS officers of forcing him to take
responsibility of the blast and also to name others in the case.
The accused had earlier applied for
the bail in January this year after a confessional statement
reportedly made by alleged Hindutva terrorist Swami Aseemnand
appeared in the media claiming the responsibility of the September
2006 blast. The court, however, rejected the application on March
15, 2011 after the CBI opposed saying the investigations into the
whole matter were going on.
The fresh bail application by the
Muslim accused followed the indications given by the National
Investigating Agency (NIA) few weeks ago saying it would not
oppose the bail if it was filed in the court.
A series of blasts had 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. 32 people had been killed and
more than 300 were injured in the blasts, most of them being
children.
The Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS)
investigation of the 2006 Malegaon blast is receiving flak ever
since it arrested the Muslim youths in the attack on a mosque in
which the victims were all Muslims. Doubts were raised over the
investigation also by the families of the victims.
After much of
an outcry the state government had decided to hand over the
investigation to the CBI. But it was done only after the ATS filed
its chargesheet accusing the Muslim youths of masterminding the
terror attack.
The case took an interesting turn when Swami Aseemanand,
one of the accused arrested in Mecca Masjid and other blast
cases, admitted in his confession made before a magistrate that the
Muslim youths arrested in 2006 blast case were not guilty.
Following the development, the CBI
began re-investigation of the case and hinted at the innocence of
the Muslim accused. The case however was handed over to the National
Investigating Agency (NIA) before the CBI could file its report.
The NIA after taking over the case has
also conducted brain-mapping and polygraph tests on the accused. The
reports of these tests conducted in a Forensic laboratory in
Ahmedabad are expected in 15 days.
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