HC brings back Sadhvi Pragya under MCOCA

Bombay High Court on Monday restored the application of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act in the 2008 Malegaon blast case against Sadhvi Pragya Singh and other accused.

The court ruling came following a state government appeal against the sessions court decision to set aside MCOCA against the Sadhvi and others.

Her advocate Ganesh Sovani told rediff.com that they are yet to examine the order in detail since it is an 80-page order.

"We would look into it and then decide on the future course of action," he said, adding, "The most likely probability is that we shall knock on the doors of the Supreme Court."

"Right from the start we have maintained that the argument against my client is a fabricated one. We had challenged the manner in which the case was imposed on my client based on the confession of one of the accused in the Parbhani case, Rakesh Dhawade," Ganesh said.

The point that came up for argument is that the ATS had interrogated Dhawade, who is supposed to have made statements against my client, the advocate said, adding, "Why did the ATS file a chargesheet against Dhawade in the Parbhani case after the investigation into the Malegaon case? Something was not right and we think it was only aimed at fixing my client."

The matter against my client is to come up before the designated court on July 23. We will decide on the next course of action before that. We are also looking into the case closely in the wake of the fresh allegations that are coming up in the wake of the investigations into the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid case. I would, however, say that these are fabricated in nature.

The sessions court had dropped the charges in this case in August 2009 while hearing the bail plea of Lt Col S P Purohit, one of the accused, who had challenged invoking this stringent act. Designated Judge Y D Shinde, presiding over the special MCOCA court in Malegaon, had observed that none of the accused were part of the organised crime syndicate. 

He also observed that none of the accused had more than one charge sheet filed against him or her -- a prerequisite for invoking provisions of MCOCA.

Additional Reportage: PTI