Nearly two decades after the 2006 Malegaon blasts that claimed 37 lives, leaving over 100 injured, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed a special court’s order that had framed charges against all four accused.
The four accused in the case are: Lokesh Sharma, Dhan Singh, Rajendra Choudhary, and Manohar Narwaria.
A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Chandak pronounced the decision on appeals filed by the accused against a September 2025 order of a special court framing charges against them, ending, for now, the prosecution initiated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
During the hearing, the defence argued that the NIA’s case lacked crucial evidence, adding there were no eyewitnesses and no recoveries linking the accused to the crime.
They also highlighted procedural lapses in the case, including a Test Identification Parade conducted over six years after the incident, questioning the reliability of witness accounts.
Subsequently, the NIA confirmed in the court that there were no eyewitnesses in the case.
The defence pointed out that the soil samples from Madhya Pradesh, where explosives were allegedly prepared, lacked traces of RDX, casting doubt on the charges.
The blasts occurred at a Muslim cemetery in Malegaon, in Nashik district on September 8, 2006.
Following the incident, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested nine Muslim men. In 2012, a special MCOCA court granted bail to the arrested accused.
The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2007, which backed the state agency’s findings at the time.
Years later, the NIA took over the case and nabbed four different accused, alleging a separate conspiracy in the case. The four were subsequently charge-sheeted and later granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
