The Bombay High Court has raised important questions regarding the appeals filed by the victims of the 2008 Malegaon blast, specifically focusing on whether those who lost family members had the procedural right to challenge the acquittals. On Wednesday, the bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad examined the matter and stressed the need to verify whether the petitioners had actually testified during the trial.
The court observed that appeals cannot be filed indiscriminately and clarified that the role of each petitioner must be established. On Tuesday, the judges had directed the appellants to present a clear tabular record identifying which victims had deposed in court. In response, Advocate Mateen Shaikh, representing the appellants, produced a chart on Wednesday, though the bench found inconsistencies in it.
Shaikh explained that Nisar Ahmed Haji Sayyed Bilal, whose son Sayyed Azahar was killed in the blast, had not been called as a witness, though he was permitted to assist the prosecution throughout. Among the six appellants who lost relatives, only two—Mushtaque Shah Haroon Shah, who lost his father, and Shaikh Liyaqat Mohiuddin, who lost his daughter—were examined as prosecution witnesses. For the remaining appellants, other relatives or associates appeared instead; for instance, Bilal’s nephew testified in his place.
The bench, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the chart presented, describing it as incomplete and confusing. The judges instructed the appellants to verify and correct the details to confirm precisely which individuals had been examined as witnesses. The matter has been adjourned until Thursday for further clarification.
The Malegaon blast took place on September 29, 2008, near a mosque about 200 km from Mumbai. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) alleged that the motorcycle used in the attack was linked to BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and that the explosives were procured by Lt Col Prasad Purohit while serving in Kashmir. During the trial, however, the court found major discrepancies, particularly regarding the restored chassis number of the motorcycle. It deemed the evidence insufficient to prove that Purohit had sourced the RDX.
On July 31, 2024, all seven accused, including Thakur and Purohit, were acquitted due to a lack of conclusive evidence. Significantly, neither the Maharashtra ATS nor the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed appeals against the trial court’s judgment. The High Court is now left to decide whether the appeals by victims’ families, many of whom were not direct witnesses, are procedurally maintainable.
