The Bombay High Court has issued notices to eight persons who were discharged earlier this year in 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts case. The court sought response from them on a petition filed by the Maharashtra government against the discharge.
The state has moved the High Court in appeal against the order of sessions court discharging the eight accused. In April, the sessions court here discharged these men of all terror charges after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) submitted that the blasts were the handiwork of a Hindu extremist group.
The state government urged the high court to set aside the order.
The division bench of justices R V More and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi issued notices to the eight persons and sought their replies in four weeks.
The state government said in the appeal that the sessions court’s order was illegal and unjust, and was contrary to the evidence on record.
The state claimed the trial court’s conclusion that Muslims would not plant bombs inside a mosque was wrong and had no legal basis.
The serial bomb blasts outside a cemetery near Hamidia mosque at Malegaon, near Nashik, on September 8, 2006, claimed 37 lives and injured over 100 people.