The special NIA court here today directed the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and the CBI to file replies on the discharge pleas of nine Muslims, arrested in the 2006 Malegoan blasts case.
The order came after one of the accused, suspected to have links with Hindu extremists and arrested in this case subsequently by the National Investigation Agency, filed an application saying that the court should summon ATS and CBI officials who had named members of the banned outfit Students Islamic Movemennt of India as accused.
While the ATS and CBI initially blamed Muslim terrorists, the NIA subsequently arrested four persons with Hindu right wing links. Manohar Singh, arrested by NIA, has opposed discharge pleas of nine Muslim accused. NIA has not objected to these discharge pleas.
The ATS had arrested Noorul Huda Samsudoha (28), Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah (41), Raees Ahmed Rajab Ali Mansuri (35), Dr Salman Farsi Abdul Latif Aimi (40), Dr Farogh Iqbal Ahmed Magdumi (38), Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikh (42), Asif Khan Bashir Khan alias Junaid (35), Mohammad Zahid Abdul Majid Ansari (31) and Abrar Ahmed Gulam Ahmed (38). All of them got bail after NIA took over the probe.
NIA arrested Lokesh Sharma, Dhan Singh, Manohar Singh and Rajendra Choudhary; all of them are now chargesheeted.
The direction of the probe changed when Swami Aseemanand, an accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case, confessed that Hindu extremists were involved in 2006 Malegoan blasts.
As many as 37 people were killed and over 125 were injured in the blasts near Muslim cemetry at Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in Nashik district of Maharashtra, on September 8, 2006.
