Pune: Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, will not be charged under MCOCA, the tough law against organised crime. However, they will face trial under sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
A special National Investigating Agency (NIA) court has dropped charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, (MCOCA), 1999 against six accused including Lt Col Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya. The special court discharged three accused Shivnarayan Kalsangara, Shyam Sahu and Praveen Takalki from the case.
As per the court order, along with Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya, the other accused who will face trial under UAPA are Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhayay and Ajay Rahirkar.
They will face trial under section 16 (Committing a terror act), section 18 (Criminal conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and sections 120 (b) (Punishment of criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 326 (intentionally causing harm to others) of the IPC.
The other two accused Rakesh Dhawde and Jagdish Mhatre will face trial only under the charges of Arms Act.
Aparna Purohit, wife of Lt Col Purohit said, “MCOCA charges have been dropped by the special court, so now the case will be looked from a different perspective. We will see the order and will decide for the further course of action to appeal against the charges under UAPA.”