Months after NIA took over the investigations into the 2006 Malegaon bombings, the anti- terror agency is set to arrest a suspect in the case who is currently in Delhi Police custody for the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts.
The suspect, Rajender Chaudhary, will be produced before a special court here in January 3.
The Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court today issued a production warrant for Chaudhary in connection with the Malegoan blasts, which according to NIA, were the handiwork of right wing groups.
“The court has issued a production warrant and he will be brought to the court on January 3,” Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian told PTI.
The multiple bomb explosions in Malegaon, a communally-sensitive powerloom town in Nashik district, about
200km from here, had occurred near a mosque on September 8, 2006, killing 37 people and injuring over 100.
The alleged role of Chaudhary in the terror attack came out through statements of some of the right wing activists who are in custody of NIA in different cases, sources in the National Investigation Agency said.
More arrests will follow once Chaudhary is taken into custody and interrogated, they said.
After the explosions, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested nine suspects – Salman Farsi, Shabir Ahmed, Noorulhuda Doha, Rais Ahmed, Mohammed Ali, Asif Khan, Javed Sheikh, Faroogue Ansari and Abrar Ahmed.
The probe into the blasts was handed over to CBI which endorsed the ATS’ findings. The case went to NIA, a
counter-terrorism law enforcement agency which came into existence in 2009 following 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The MCOCA court had granted bail to the nine accused on November 5 last year after new details emerged about the
bombings.
NIA had told the court that the confession of Swami Aseemanand, arrested for the 2007 blast in Hyderabad’s Mecca
Masjid, pointed to involvement of a right wing group in the Malegaon terror attack.
The central agency submitted it had reviewed the evidence collected by previous investigating agencies, ATS and
CBI, and gathered some fresh evidence.
“From the beginning, we have been arguing that the nine arrested accused had no role in the Malegaon blasts,” defence advocate Khalid Azmi said.
Meanwhile, Dhan Singh, a prime suspect in the Samjhauta blasts who has been arrested in the 2008 Malegaon bomb
explosion, was today further remanded to NIA custody till January 3 by the Special Court.
Twelve persons, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, were arrested for the blast at
Malegaon on September 29, 2008, in which six persons were killed and 100 others injured.
————–PTI