Mumbai, November 06: A Special MCOCA court granted bail on Saturday to all nine men accused in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts in which 37 persons were killed and hundreds injured.
The accused were granted bail after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) told Special MCOCA Judge Yatin D Shinde that it had decided not to oppose the bail pleas of the accused.
“After due deliberation, a decision was taken on the basis of the facts and circumstances not to oppose the bail applications of all the nine accused persons who were earlier arrested,” the NIA told the court in reply to the bail applications.
While granting bail, the court also directed each of the nine men to deposit Rs 50,000 as surety.
The nine accused are Salman Farsi, Shabir Ahmed, Noorulhuda Doha, Raees Ahmed, Javed Sheikh, Farooque Ansari, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammed Ali and Asif Khan. However, the last two will not be set free as they are also accused in the 7/11 local train blasts in Mumbai.
The nine had filed fresh bail applications after Swami Aseemanand’s reported confession late last year in which he claimed that the blasts were the handiwork of Hindu right wing groups, also blamed for the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast, and blasts in Ajmer and Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad.
The NIA said that after the confession of Aseemanand, it reviewed the evidence of other investigating agencies and then collected fresh evidence before arriving at its decision.
The September 8, 2006 blasts had occurred in and around a mosque in the town in Nashik district during afternoon prayers on Shab-e-Barat.
The families of the nine men have been maintaining that they are innocent and were framed in the case by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad which first handled the probe. The CBI, which took over the case, too continued on the same lines before it was handed to the NIA earlier this year following Aseemanand’s reported confession. Aseemanand subsequently retracted the confession saying he had been coerced to make it.
His reported confession led to a fresh clamour for bail to the nine and Muslim groups had pressured Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to lead their delegation to Delhi to meet Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and press for their release.
Earlier this week, Chidambaram said the NIA would not oppose the bail pleas when they come up before the court.
Speaking to The Sunday Express, Moulana Mustaqeem Azmi, president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, said, “I am very happy with the verdict. The authorities can certainly punish these people if they are found to be guilty. However, they have been in custody for four years when the charges against them have not been proved. It is good that at least now they have been given relief.”
‘Our homes coming to life again’
“Our homes are finally coming to life after a long time. When the judge finally said he is granting bail, there were tears of happiness in our eyes,” said Jamil Masiullah (47) whose brother Shabir and brother-in-law Raees Ahmed are among the nine.
“We showed our gratitude to the Chief Minister and have asked for compensation and rehabilitation of the accused and their families. It will not be easy for them to go back to their lives. We have asked the government to take action against officers from the state police and ATS who concocted a case against these nine,” said S S Shaikh, lawyer for the nine accused.
Dr Nafisa Ansari, wife of Dr Salman Farsi, said, “The whole city is rejoicing in Malegaon. It has been a long wait. But we still need the agencies to confirm that they are not guilty.”
——Agencies