NEW DELHI: The Bombay High Court Tuesday granted bail a prime accused in 2008 Malegaon blasts case.
According to Indian media reports, the court granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, but denied relief to Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, a co-accused in the case.
Sadhvi Pragya and Col. Purohit had earlier filed pleas in the Bombay High Court seeking bail.
The duo had moved the High Court after the special court that hears terror cases probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) rejected their bail pleas.
NIA had said there was prima facie evidence of audio and video recordings, call detail, and witness statements, to suggest that Purohit played a major role in conspiring and executing the blasts.
Purohit, on the other hand, had argued that NIA was selective in exonerating only some accused in the case and he had been made a “scapegoat” in the case.
Authorities had charge-sheeted 12 Hindu extremists, including Lt. Col. Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, in the case.
The serial bomb blasts in Gujarat and Maharashtra on 29 September 2008 claimed 37 lives and injured over 100 people.