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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Bombay HC closes case against four accused

Mumbai: In a major setback to the prosecution, the Bombay High Court has quashed a Special Court’s order framing charges implicating four accused in the Malegaon 2006 bomb blasts case, thus effectively closing the trial against them.   A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Chandak allowed appeals filed by the accused - Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Manohar Ramsingh Narwaria and Lokesh Sharma - setting aside the Special NIA Court’s September 30, 2025 order...

Bombay HC closes case against four accused

Mumbai : In a major setback to the prosecution, the Bombay High Court has quashed a Special Court’s order framing charges implicating four accused in the Malegaon 2006 bomb blasts case, thus effectively closing the trial against them.   A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Chandak allowed appeals filed by the accused - Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Manohar Ramsingh Narwaria and Lokesh Sharma - setting aside the Special NIA Court’s September 30, 2025 order that had charged them with murder, criminal conspiracy and offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).   The high court’s ruling has discharged all the four appellants and halts the last remaining prosecution in one of the deadliest terror cases famous as the Malegaon 2006 blasts case. With this, there are no accused left facing trial.   Earlier, the court had condoned a 49-day delay in filing the appeals, noting they were statutory appeals under Section 21 of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act.   While admitting their pleas in January 2026, the Court had observed that a “prima facie case for interference” was made out and stayed further trial proceedings in the Special Court.   Later, the case narrative went topsy-turvy after the NIA entered the probe. It concluded that the earlier (nine) accused were innocent and instead pointed to the alleged involvement of Hindu right-wing activists.   In 2016, a Special NIA Court discharged all the nine originally accused-arrested men on grounds of insufficient evidence. This ruling was challenged before the high court in 2019 and is still pending.   Purported Confession The NIA’s conclusions in the revised case relied heavily on a purported confession by Swami Aseemanand in 2010, in which he allegedly claimed that an associate Sunil Joshi (since deceased) had told him that the Malegaon blasts were carried out by ‘his boys’.   Based on this confession, the NIA filed a fresh charge-sheet naming the four appellants, along with the deceased Joshi and three others absconding accused.   However, Aseemanand later retracted his confession and alleged coercion tactics. He was already in custody and accused in other blast cases like the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif, and the court rejected his confession as ‘unreliable’, and acquitted him.   No Eyewitness The lawyer for the four appellants argued in the high court that there were no eyewitness linking the accused to the terror strike and that the prosecution’s case was based on a confession that was already discredited by multiple courts.   He also questioned the legality of discharging the other (nine) co-accused while proceeding against the (four) appellants, pointing out that appeals against those discharge orders are still pending.   The four men were arrested in 2013 and spent six years in custody before being granted bail in 2019, with the high court noting at the time that they had been incarcerated without trial for an extended period.   With today’s ruling, the case has acquired a queer legal status: the original nine accused have been discharged, and the charges against the subsequent set of four accused are quashed.   While the discharge of the nine accused awaits the final legal scrutiny, till date, not a single conviction has been secured in 20-year-old blasts case.   Incidentally, the verdict comes barely a year after a Special NIA Court acquitted all seven accused in the other Malegaon 2008 bomb blasts case, citing lack of evidence, in which, among the accused were ex-BJP MP Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, besides certain army officers.   As far as the survivors and the families of the victims are concerned, the 2006 case has brought no relief despite prolonged investigations by multiple probe agencies, shifting theories, and an unfulfilled quest for fixing accountability.   Multiple probes, no result It was a Friday afternoon of September 8, 2006 when multiple blasts ripped through the Hamidia Mosque and a cemetery in Malegaon, a power-loom town in Nashik district. The explosions killed more than 31 people besides injuring over 300, sparking widespread outrage.   The local police and then the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), first probed the case and arrested nine Muslim men against whom a chargesheet was filed in December 2006.   Subsequently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case in 2007, and continued the same line of investigation, while the nine accused spent nearly five years in jail before securing bail in 2011.

Architect of ‘Latur Pattern’

Dr Janardan Waghmare
Dr Janardan Waghmare

With the passing of Dr Janardan Waghmare on Monday (2 March) at the age of 91, Maharashtra has lost one of its brightest intellectuals. The architect of the famed ‘Latur Pattern’, Dr Waghmare was an eminent thinker, educationist, author and critic. Besides being the founder Vice-Chancellor of Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University in Nanded, Dr Waghmare was a former Member of Parliament, the only directly elected President of Latur Municipal Council, a lifelong member of Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan, and a member of Nanded Education Society (established by Swami Ramanand Teerth). Dr Waghmare passed away after a brief illness.


With his death, Marathi intellectual and literary discourse has lost a radiant beacon. Dr Waghmare’s life was a testament to the saying that education lends fulfilment to life and nobility to character. His was a life enriched by relentless reading, reflection, scholarship, teaching, authorship, philosophical inquiry and critical thought.


Early life and education

Born on 11 November 1934 in Janwal village in Chakur Taluka in Latur District, Dr Janardan Waghmare grew up in modest surroundings. His father, Madhavrao Waghmare, was a farmer and ensured that young Janardan received education at home by appointing a private tutor. He later joined the government school in Latur, where he studied alongside Shivraj Patil, the man who later in life was to become Union Home Minister. Their friendship lasted decades.


Waghmare completed matriculation from Marwadi Rajasthan Vidyalaya at a time when Urdu was the medium of instruction. Collegiate education took him to Hyderabad. He bagged first prize in the All-India Hindi Elocution Competition while at Nizam College in 1955. His achievement was personally acknowledged by then President Rajendra Prasad, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Defence Minister V K Krishna Menon.


He earned a BA from Osmania University.


He then pursued a Master’s in English Language and Literature in 1959 from Pune University (now Savitribai Phule Pune University).


Career, further studies, personal life

After his Master’s, Waghmare worked as a teacher at Shivchhatrapati College in Omerga and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar College in Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar). He pursued an LLB degree.


Raised with Arya Samaj values, Waghmare married Sulochana, daughter of Manikrao Arya (Jadhav). It was an inter-caste marriage, a progressive step at the time.


He completed his MA in English Language and Literature in 1959 from Pune University (now Savitribai Phule University, Pune), and soon began his teaching career. After serving at Shivchhatrapati College in Omerga and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar College in Aurangabad (Chh Sambhajinagar), he also pursued an LLB degree.


He took on a transformative responsibility in 1970 and became the first Principal of Rajarshi Shahu College, which was founded to educate students from marginalised communities. Under his visionary leadership, the college rose to prominence as a centre of academic excellence and social transformation.


The Latur Pattern

It was during his tenure that the famed ‘Latur Pattern’, a rigorous, disciplined, results-oriented approach to education, took shape and gained nationwide recognition.


In his 25 years of work as Principal (1970–1994), he shaped the careers of thousands of students.


Literary work

He served as Principal for 25 years (1970–1994), shaping thousands of students who went on to distinguished careers in India and abroad. Dr Waghmare was equally distinguished in literature. His first book, American Negro: Literature and Culture (1978), was widely acclaimed, even drawing praise from celebrated writer P L Deshpande in Maharashtra Times. Over his lifetime, he authored 75 books, including works in English and Hindi, covering politics, society, philosophy, autobiography (A Handful of Soil), and biographies such as Sharad Pawar: Personality, Leadership and Achievement.


Many of his works received prestigious awards. His writing and activism reflected deep engagement with India’s Dalit movement, and he also enthralled audiences through Hindi poetry.

He became the founder Vice-Chancellor of Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded. He laid a strong foundation and initiated several significant reforms, including ‘caste-free village’, a model developed through National Sevagram initiatives.


Political life

His tenure as directly elected President of Latur Municipal Council in 2001 was marked by a firm anti-corruption stance and transparency. The council won first prize in the Maharashtra Sant Gadge Baba Urban Cleanliness Campaign.


Sharad Pawar nominated Dr Waghmare to the Rajya Sabha, an honour befitting his stature.


As a Member of Parliament, he served on key committees, including Human Resource Development and Defence.


In 2009, he was part of the Indian parliamentary delegation to the United Nations, where he addressed representatives from 150 nations on global peace, earning admiration for his eloquence.


Dr Waghmare received numerous state and national honours, including the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Dalit Mitra Award (1994) from the Government of Maharashtra.


He presided over multiple major Marathi literary meets, including the 38th Marathwada Literary Meet in 2016, and chaired the International Hindi Literary Seminar organised by Sant Kabir Pratishthan in 2017.


(The writer is a journalist based in Latur.)

 

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