The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Maharashtra government on a petition filed by Pragya Singh Thakur, prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case, seeking bail.
A bench comprising Justices J M Panchal and Gyan Sudha Misra sought the reply from Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorist Squad which had arrested Thakur and later booked her under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Thakur, alleged that Thakur was kept in 14 days 'illegal' custody before she was produced in a trial court on October 23, 2008.
Sadhvi's counsel Ganesh Sovani told rediff.com that they would also be challenging another order which had upheld the imposition of the MCOCA against his client.
"We will challenge the same before the Supreme Court of India next week," he said.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had initially filed a bail plea before the Bombay HC, which was rejected; following which she preferred a special leave petition before the apex court.
The high court had also quashed the decision of the special court to drop the charges under the MCOCA and allowed the prosecution to charge Thakur and the ten other accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case under the special law.
The trial of the case is slated to take place at a special MCOCA court.
Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district Maharashtra.
The probe into the blast had brought into focus some right-wing Hindu groups. A special MCOCA court had on July 31, 2009 had held that the ATS had wrongly applied MCOCA in the case against Pragya, Purohit and nine others.
The 4,000-page chargesheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because Muslims form the majority of its population.
It named Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel S P Purohit and another accused Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators. The chargesheet had further alleged that it was Pandey who had instructed Purohit to arrange for the RDX while Pragya owned the motorcycle used in the blast.
Ajay Rahirkar, another accused, allegedly organised funds for the terror act while conspiracy meetings were held at Bhonsala Military School in Nasik.
Rakesh Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre and Sameer Kulkarni are the other six accused.
With inputs from PTI
