No evidence to invoke MCOCA against malegaon accused Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said there was no prima facie evidence to invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya, setting aside a high court order.

The top court also refused to deal with pleas made by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for custody of the accused and asked a Maharashtra trial court to decide on bail pleas of the accused within a month.

The ruling comes as a huge relief for those accused of conspiring to set off bomb blasts in Muslim-dominated Malegaon as part of a Hindu right-wing conspiracy. A High Court order had directed their trial under MCOCA. Supreme Court Justices FMI Kalifullah and Abhay Manohar Sapre’s decision would help the accused get bail as they have already spent six years in jail and also pave way for their trial to begin seven years after the 2008 incident.

Among the key accused are Shrikant Purohit, a serving army officer, and Sadhvi Pragya. The trial court had discharged them under MCOCA, but the High Court had restored the charges. The top court on Wednesday ruled that there was not enough evidence prima facie to book them under MCOCA.

The Maharashtra ATS had accused them of being involved in two earlier incidents in Jalna in 2004 and Parbhani in 2003 as well and had argued that this would warrant invoking MCOCA against them. On appeal by the accused, the Supreme Court only found one accused – Rakesh Dattaray Dhawade -- guilty of being involved in the other two incidents as well and directed that only he be tried under MCOCA.

Under MCOCA, 1999, confession of a co-accused is admissible. This would have helped the prosecution in proving the charges against all accused in the case.