Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Bharatiya Janata PartyтАЩs Member of Parliament Pragya Singh Thakur and┬аLieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit┬аwithdrew their appeals against the rejection of discharge, as accused in the┬а2008┬аMalegaon┬аblast case.
They had filed their appeals before the Bombay High Court┬аafter the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court rejected their applications. On Thursday, a single bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari allowed┬аthem┬аto withdraw┬аthe appeal.
The withdrawal came after NIA┬аmade a statement┬аbefore the high court┬аthat they were going to start examining witnesses related to sanction,┬аin the ongoing trial.
Along with Ms. Singh, co-accused Sameer Kulkarni had┬аalso┬аfiled an appeal against the discharge in┬аthe year┬а2017.┬аMr. Purohit┬аhad filed an appeal on the grounds that┬аthe sanction should have been sought before prosecuting him under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (prosecution of judges and public servants).
So far┬а289 witnesses have been examined┬аin the trial┬аand 25 of them┬аhave been┬аdeclared hostile.┬аOn September 29, 2008, a bomb exploded in Malegaon, a city in the Nashik district in Maharashtra killing six and injuring over 100.┬аThe other accused are retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.
