In a jolt to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), the special court hearing the 2008 Malegaon blast case today dropped provisions of the stringent anti-terror Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) slapped on Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and nine others accused.

The reasoning behind the ruling by Special Judge Y D Shinde is expected to be available on Saturday.

The judge stayed his order for four weeks to allow the prosecution to appeal in the High Court. If the ruling is upheld by the Bombay High Court, the high-profile case will be tried in a regular court in Nashik and not the special MCOCA court in Mumbai.

While the ATS and the prosecution said they would appeal, lawyers defending the Hindu activists hailed the ruling and said it showed that MCOCA had been applied in the case only to use confessions of the accused during the trial as the state had hardly any evidence to back its case.

Purohit’s lawyer Shrikant Shivde had challenged the application of MCOCA in the case saying the ATS investigation had not established that the accused were operating as part of a syndicate as required by MCOCA. They were also not alleged to have gained financially.

MCOCA can be applied in a case only if at least one of the accused has two prior cases that have been chargesheeted within the past decade. Further, each offence must be punishable with a minimum sentence of three years or more.

... contd.