The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant interim bailto ex-Army officer Shrikant Prasad Purohit, Pragya Thakur and other accused inthe 2008 Malegaon blast case.
A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad refused togrant any interim relief after senior advocate U R Lalit appearing for theaccused contended they have been behind bars for four years and their petitionsare not being heard by the apex court.
"We will not give interim bail at this stage," thebench said.
The bench further said that "it's not our fault"that the petitions are not being heard on a regular basis, after the stategovernment sought adjournment of the case.
The court adjourned the case for three weeks.
The bench also extended its interim order restraining the NationalInvestigation Agency from interrogating the accused.
On January 4 this year, the apex court had extended its stayof the Bombay High Court order allowing the agency to interrogate him and hadalso impleaded the NIA on the bail plea of Purohit.
On December 16 last year, the bench had stayed the operationof the high court's order.
Purohit had approached the apex court challenging the HighCourt's October 20, 2011 order allowing NIA to take him from judicial custodyto interrogate him.
Purohit was arrested and issued a charge sheet in connectionwith the Malegaon bomb blast that took place on September 29, 2008 leavingseven persons dead.
According to the prosecution, the accused had formed anorganisation “ the Abhinav Bharat Trust at Pune in 2006 with headquarters atthe address of co-accused Ajay Rahirkar. It was registered on February 9, 2007.They had allegedly taken an oath to strive to turn India into a Hindu rashtracalled Aryawart.
It was alleged that the members met from time to time todiscuss various aspects for achieving their goal. Accused Shankaracharya isstated to have recorded conversations at the meetings and these recordings arethe foundation of the case against the blast accused.
Approval for applying provisions of MCOCA in this case wasgranted on November 20, 2008, and the applicants were booked for offences underthis stringent act.
Purohit and Rahirkar along with others were issued chargesheet for offences under various enactments including MCOCA.
On July 31, 2009, the special judge had held that chargesagainst them under MCOCA did not survive and discharged them.
He had directed that the case be placed before a regularsessions court to try them for other offences and therefore rejected theirapplications for bail.
The state had challenged the order discharging the accusedfrom offences under MCOCA before the high court.
