SC dismisses bail plea of Sadhvi Pragya

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to grant bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who is facing charges under MCOCA for her alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case.

Dismissing her bail plea, a bench of justices J M Panchal and H L Gokhale said, "There is no merit in the petition".

The bench passed the order on a petition filed by Thakur contending that Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorist Squad ( ATS) had failed to file the charge sheet against her within the mandatory 90 days of her arrest on October 23, 2008.

Counsel for Thakur had further pleaded with the court to grant her bail, saying she had been subjected to "harassment, physical torture and verbal abuse" by the ATS squad during her "illegal" custody from October 10, 2008 onwards.

The Maharashtra government had, however, told the court that Thakur was arrested on October 23 and produced before a magistrate as required under the law.

The bench had reserved its order on September 1 after hearing all the parties, including Maharashtra government which opposed the bail plea.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of Maharashtra. The probe into the blast had brought into focus the alleged involvement of some right-wing Hindu groups.