{"id":15351,"date":"2025-07-31T12:02:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15351"},"modified":"2025-07-31T12:02:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:02:36","slug":"sadhvi-pragya-six-others-acquitted-in-deadly-2008-malegaon-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15351","title":{"rendered":"Sadhvi Pragya, six others acquitted in deadly 2008 Malegaon bombing"},"content":{"rendered":"
An Indian court on Thursday acquitted Hindu nationalist figure and former BJP lawmaker Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, along with six others, of charges related to a 2008 bombing near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra, that killed six people and injured over 100.<\/p>\n

The accused had faced terrorism and criminal conspiracy charges over the blast, which was caused by a bomb planted on a motorcycle. The high-profile trial, involving allegations of right-wing extremism, stretched on for years before concluding with Thursday\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n

The prosecution claimed Thakur’s motorbike was used to carry the explosives used in the attack, and that she took part in a key planning meeting before it was staged.<\/p>\n

However, Judge AK Lahoti ruled on Thursday that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence against Thakur and the six others.<\/p>\n

“Judgements cannot be based on morals and public perception,” Lahoti said, according to Indian legal website Live Law.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Ranjit Nair said the judge noted that the prosecution could not “present any proof against the accused”.<\/p>\n

Indian parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi called the verdict “disappointing”, saying those killed were “targeted for their religion”.<\/p>\n

“A deliberately shoddy investigation\/prosecution is responsible for the acquittal,” he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

Islam is a minority religion in Hindu-majority India, the world’s most populous country.<\/p>\n

During the trial, India’s counter-terrorism unit said the 2008 bombing was orchestrated to incite communal tensions, local media reported.<\/p>\n

Thakur, 55, spent nine years in jail before she was given bail in 2017.<\/p>\n

She later won an election after being fielded by the BJP to run for a seat in the central city of Bhopal.<\/p>\n

Indian election rules allow anyone to stand for office as long as they have not been convicted of a crime.<\/p>\n

Thakur courted controversy when she called the radical Hindu assassin of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi a “patriot” earning her a rebuke from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

She also raised eyebrows for claiming that drinking cow urine had helped cure her cancer and extolling the benefits of drinking a concoction of milk, butter and cow dung.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Indian court on Thursday acquitted Hindu nationalist figure and former BJP lawmaker Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, along with six others, of charges related to a 2008 bombing near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra, that killed six people and injured over 100. The accused had faced terrorism and criminal conspiracy charges over the blast, which was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}