07-31-2009, 10:26 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->MCOCA charges dropped against sadhvi Pragya, Lt Col Purohit
pioneer.com
PTI | Mumbai
In a reprieve to sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col S P Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, a special court on Friday dropped provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) invoked against them saying none are part of an organised crime syndicate.
Designated Judge Y D Shinde, presiding over the special MCOCA court here, however, rejected the bail plea of Purohit.
The court dropped the charges in this case while hearing the bail plea of Purohit who had challenged invoking this stringent act. Shinde observed that none of the accused are part of the organised crime syndicate.
He also observed that none of the accused had more than one charge sheet filed against him or her -- a prerequisite for invoking provisions of MCOCA.
As provisions of IPC would apply now, the case would be heard by a sessions court in Nashik.
The special court, however, stayed its order lifting MCOCA provisions for a period of four weeks to enable the state to file an appeal in Bombay High Court.
Additional DGP K P Raghuvanshi said the government would file an appeal in the high court after getting certified copy of the order.
Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a textile town near Nashik.
Purohit in his bail application had challenged the invocation of MCOCA in the case on grounds that the stringent law does not apply in the case as none of the accused have previous criminal antecedents.
"According to the prosecution, the accused belonged to a group Abhinav Bharat that was part of the organised crime syndicate. However, Abhinav Bharat is a registered group, which has objectives like promoting national harmony and so on and not to promote violence," Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivade said.
He further said that the prosecution had invoked MCOCA only to extract confessions from the accused. "<b>If the case is under IPC then the confessions would have to be recorded before a magistrate but in MCOCA cases the confessions can be recorded by a deputy commissioner of police,"</b> Shivade said.
He further said that the<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> ATS does not have any other individual evidence in the case against the accused other than the confessions. "Police resort to such moves when they lack evidence," </span>he said.
Besides Thakur and Purohit, the other accused are Rakesh Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre, Sameer Kulkarni and Ajay Rahirkar.
The ATS had filed a 11,000-page charge sheet against the accused in January. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
From very beginning this was work of Murakh Appointed PM of India.
pioneer.com
PTI | Mumbai
In a reprieve to sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col S P Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, a special court on Friday dropped provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) invoked against them saying none are part of an organised crime syndicate.
Designated Judge Y D Shinde, presiding over the special MCOCA court here, however, rejected the bail plea of Purohit.
The court dropped the charges in this case while hearing the bail plea of Purohit who had challenged invoking this stringent act. Shinde observed that none of the accused are part of the organised crime syndicate.
He also observed that none of the accused had more than one charge sheet filed against him or her -- a prerequisite for invoking provisions of MCOCA.
As provisions of IPC would apply now, the case would be heard by a sessions court in Nashik.
The special court, however, stayed its order lifting MCOCA provisions for a period of four weeks to enable the state to file an appeal in Bombay High Court.
Additional DGP K P Raghuvanshi said the government would file an appeal in the high court after getting certified copy of the order.
Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a textile town near Nashik.
Purohit in his bail application had challenged the invocation of MCOCA in the case on grounds that the stringent law does not apply in the case as none of the accused have previous criminal antecedents.
"According to the prosecution, the accused belonged to a group Abhinav Bharat that was part of the organised crime syndicate. However, Abhinav Bharat is a registered group, which has objectives like promoting national harmony and so on and not to promote violence," Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivade said.
He further said that the prosecution had invoked MCOCA only to extract confessions from the accused. "<b>If the case is under IPC then the confessions would have to be recorded before a magistrate but in MCOCA cases the confessions can be recorded by a deputy commissioner of police,"</b> Shivade said.
He further said that the<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> ATS does not have any other individual evidence in the case against the accused other than the confessions. "Police resort to such moves when they lack evidence," </span>he said.
Besides Thakur and Purohit, the other accused are Rakesh Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre, Sameer Kulkarni and Ajay Rahirkar.
The ATS had filed a 11,000-page charge sheet against the accused in January. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
From very beginning this was work of Murakh Appointed PM of India.