2006 Malegaon Blasts: ATS, ABI, NIA In Trouble

The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked how the findings of the NIA, which had absolved nine Muslim men in its chargesheet and instead named four members of a Hindu extremist organisation in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case, were so different from those of the CBI and Maharashtra ATS.

A bench of justices Naresh Patil and NW Sambre, which was hearing petitions challenging the discharge of the nine men in the trial court, pointed out that the Anti-Terrorism Squad, which probed the case first, booked them for the blasts which had claimed 37 lives, and the CBI, which took over the case a year later, endorsed it.

However, the the National Investigating Agency (NIA), to which the probe was transferred in 2011, filed a chargesheet absolving them of all charges, and instead named four others, who were members of a Hindu extremist organisation, as the accused.