On Wednesday, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai granted the last extension to all the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case who were absent during the hearing, including BJP MP Pragya Thakur.
The Court said that all the accused will have to follow the earlier orders of the Court & be present in the court at least once a week from now onward.
So far, Pragya Thakur has been citing ill-health or engagement as a Lok Sabha MP to stay away from the Court.
The Court also fined 1 of the accused, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, for filing unnecessary applications & wasting the Court's time.
Chaturvedi had filed an application seeking the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) case diary, which the Court termed as nothing but a delay tactic & fined him Rs 10,000. Chaturvedi has been asked to pay the fine within 3 days.
Another application by him, seeking the report of his brain mapping test, was allowed by the Court.
This comes a day after Bombay High Court observed that there was no progress in the trial.
Besides Mr Chaturvedi & Ms Thakur, Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (Retd.) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Ajay Rahirkar & Samir Kulkarni are also accused in the case.
They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act & the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
They have been charged for committing terrorist act & conspiring to commit terrorist act under the UAPA & criminal conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt & promoting enmity between two religious groups under the IPC.
6 people were killed & over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on Sept 29, 2008.
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