The MCOCA court today rejected a plea by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for the custody of Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Abhinav Bharat treasurer Ajay Rahirkar and Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit after they accused the ATS of torturing them and their lawyers argued there were no new grounds to seek their custody.

Special MCOCA Judge Y D Shinde remanded the three as well as four others — accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast case — to judicial custody until December 3 and said the court would decide tomorrow if the torture allegations need to be investigated.

Of the 11 arrested so far, only Mahant Dayanand Pandey and Sudhakar Chaturvedi are in ATS custody, the rest in judicial custody.

Seven of them were produced in the court today. Seeking police custody of Purohit, Rahirkar and the sadhvi, Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian said that they were needed to be further questioned on the “sinister design of Abhinav Bharat, which appears to be instrumental in promoting, advocating and inciting unlawful and terrorist activities.”

The ATS also needed to know the source of the explosives used in the blast and if it was funded through hawala channels, she added.

Thakur’s lawyer Ganesh Sovani, however, rejected the allegations and said the sadhvi’s role was limited to the fact that a motorcycle she once owned had been used in the attack. She had no control over its use after it had been sold and the ATS had no other evidence to link her to the attack, he claimed. While Purohit’s lawyer, Shrikant Shivade, said that the ATS was seeking his custody only to torture him and extract a confession, Rahirkar’s lawyer, Nitin Apte, said all material the ATS needed from Rahirkar had already been seized.

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