Malegaon blast case: Pragya’s plea against court appearance rejected

Mumbai: A special court set up to hear the 2008 Malegaon blast case refused to exempt the newly-elected Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur from appearing before the court for the case hearing. The court has directed her to appear at least once a week.

The special court, referring to the directions of the Supreme Court in such cases of political leaders, observed that the presence of Thakur is necessary for an expeditious trial.

“Time and again the apex court has directed the court to decide matters of political leaders expeditiously. In view of these directions, now the A 1 (Thakur) being MP, as a political leader and since matter is already expedited as per directions of the apex court, again I passed order that she should remain present in court once in a week, so also other accused,” reads the order.

Thakur’s lawyer had sought for her exemption from the hearing between June 3 to June 7 on the ground that she needs to complete the process of elections. The court held that the ground cannot be accepted at all as time and again A 1 (Thakur) undertakes to remain present before court but fails to do so.

The court further observed that previously the accused were exempted because the prosecution was examining injured victims and medical witnesses. The court observed that now the prosecution would begin examining material witnesses and during that the presence of accused is certainly necessary.