Insufficient evidence to prosecute Pragya Singh Thakur over Malegaon blasts: NIA

Contesting for the Lok Sabha elections accused Pragya Singh Thakur reacted to an appeal to bar Malegaon 2008 blast. NIA said that, it had not found sufficient evidence to prosecute her in its 2016 supplementary chargesheet. In her response, she said there was no provision in law which excluded her from contesting and labeled the plea as "frivolous" and "filed for the sake of publicity".

Nisar Bilal, whose son Sayyed Ahmed died in the blast, urged the special NIA court to bar Pragya from contesting as the trial against her was pending, last week. She is contesting on a BJP ticket from Bhopal, out on bail. Both NIA and Pragya submitted their statements before special NIA judge V S Padalkar. With over 110 witnesses having deposed, the trial is underway in the same court.

"It had not found sufficient evidence to prosecute Pragya Singh Thakur over the Malegaon blasts. It had no jurisdiction in the matter as contesting elections was unrelated to the case, and it did not want to offer comments on the plea as it was related to the election and Election Commission." the NIA said, in its four-page reply to a plea of Nisar Bilal to bar her from contesting the Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday. "Whether she can contest can be decided by the EC only," the NIA added.

NIA special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal, the defence and Bilal's lawyer are to present their statements on Wednesday. The blast had killed six persons and left 101 injured on September 29, 2008.

The NIA then noted, "It was pertinent to mention that in the supplementary chargesheet dated May 13, 2016, NIA has recommended the prosecution against 10 accused and recommended the evidences against Pragya and five others were not found sufficient and as such the prosecution against them was not maintainable."

The NIA also stated that Bilal was an intervenor in Pragya's bail plea before Bombay high court. The NIA again brought portions of the April 25, 2017 order in which HC granted her bail and rejected Bilal's plea for a stay on the order. "Since we have recorded the conclusions for the purpose of this appeal that there is no material on record to prove prima facie case against the appellant, the prayer for stay is rejected," the HC had said. Bilal has stirred the Supreme Court in quest of termination of her bail.