An accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, BJP's Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur, on Saturday, 19 December, failed to appear before a special NIA court, PTI reported. This was the second time in the month she skipped the court date.
As per her lawyer, she was not well and was admitted in a hospital in Delhi, which is why she could not be present in the court.
Out of the seven people accused in the case, five were present in the court on 19 December. The court has now directed all the seven accused to appear before it on 4 January.
Thakur’s lawyer JP Mishra said that she has been undergoing treatment at AIIMS Delhi since April. “She had gone there for a check-up and as per the advice of the doctors, she had to be admitted on Friday,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
The court had asked all the seven accused to be present before it on 3 December, but most of them skipped the court day stating the reason of pandemic.
Later, the court directed them to appear before it on 19 December.
Five accused – Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahikar and Sudhakar Dwiwedi – appeared before the court on Saturday.
Terror charges were put against Purohit, Thakur and five other accused in October 2018 after six people were killed and over 100 others were injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra.
The accused in the case have been charged under Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and among several others.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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