Headline: 11 Malegaon blast accused booked under MCOCA Act

Headline: 11 Malegaon blast accused booked under MCOCA Act Dated: 22 Jan 2009 Source: UNI Text: A special court here today booked the 11 accused in the September 29 Malegaon bomb blast case, including serving army officer Lt Col Srikant Prasad Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, under the stringent MCOCA Act. The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court Judge Y D Shinde had reserved its order after hearing both the parties on applicability of MCOCA against the accused on January 20. Judge Shinde pronounced the order this morning stating that on the basis of the documents submitted by the prosecution, prima facie case had been made out against the accused to book them under the stringent Act. Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian told UNI that cognizance could be taken on the basis of statements, FIR and sections levelled, though in the stringent act, prior sanction was required. After going through the documents, court could take cognizance and later on transfer it if there was no substantial evidence. The court had taken cognizance on the last occasion itself when the accused were numbered and remanded to judicial custody, though Judge Shinde pronounced the formal order today, she added. On the last occasion, the prosecution had filed a 4,528-page chargesheet against all the accused. On September 29 last year, a blast occurred at Malegaon killing six people and leaving several others injured. All the accused were booked under sections 3(1), 3(2), 3(4) and 4 of MCOCA, several sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Explosives Act, Explosive Substances and Arms Act. Sadhvi Thakur and her two associates -- Shamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Singh -- were the first to be arrested on October 23, from Nashik. Subsequently, the other accused -- Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Jagdish Mhatre, Rakesh Dhawade, Lt Col Prasad Srikant Purohit, Dayanand Pande alias Swami Amritanand and Sudhakar Chaturvedi were arrested. Lt Col Purohit was believed to be the founding member of Abhinav Bharat, a radical Hindu outfit. This is the first case, in which any serving army officer has been taken into custody for interrogation in connection with bomb blast charges. It was also believed that he had arranged RDX for the blast. Rahirkar was alleged to be fund manager of Abhinav Bharat.

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