NIA doesn't oppose Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's bail plea in Malegaon blast case

Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency, which is probing the 2008 Malegaon blast case, on Monday did not oppose in a court here the bail application filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur after giving her a clean chit last month.

"We have not opposed her bail application. We told the (special NIA) court that we have filed the charge sheet and the court may take appropriate decision," an NIA officer said.

NIA, in its charge sheet filed on May 13, dropped all the charges against Pragya and five others citing lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, who was among those injured in the blast, has filed an intervention application opposing the bail for Pragya. He being an `affected party', the court should hear him, he says.

The court is likely to hear intervention application on Wednesday.

Sadhvi Pragya, Shyam Sahu, Shiv Kalsangra and Pravinn Takkalki have filed applications for bail.

Pragya has contended in the application that there is no evidence against her. Though the motor-cycle used in the blast was owned by her, according to one of the witnesses it was in the possession of Ramchandra Kalsangra, an absconding accused, she says.

Some of the witnesses whose statements were used to implicate her later recanted and filed complaints of torture by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, the application adds.

Seven people were killed in a blast at Malegaon, a predominantly Muslim town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.