{"id":3780,"date":"2025-07-31T14:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/ex-mp-six-others-cleared-of-deadly-india-bombing-charges\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T14:17:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:17:32","slug":"ex-mp-six-others-cleared-of-deadly-india-bombing-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/ex-mp-six-others-cleared-of-deadly-india-bombing-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-MP, six others cleared of deadly India bombing charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thakur shows her ink-marked finger after casting her vote, outside a polling station in Bhopal on May 12, 2019. — Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

MUMBAI: An Indian court on Thursday acquitted Hindu nationalist figure and former BJP lawmaker Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, along with six others, of charges related to a 2008 bombing near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra, that killed six people and injured over 100.<\/p>\n

The accused had faced terrorism and criminal conspiracy charges over the blast, which was caused by a bomb planted on a motorcycle. The high-profile trial, involving allegations of right-wing extremism, stretched on for years before concluding with Thursday’s verdict.<\/p>\n

The prosecution claimed Thakur’s motorbike was used to carry the explosives used in the attack, and that she took part in a key planning meeting before it was staged.<\/p>\n

However, Judge AK Lahoti ruled on Thursday that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence against Thakur and the six others.<\/p>\n

“Judgements cannot be based on morals and public perception,” Lahoti said, according to Indian legal website Live Law.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Ranjit Nair said the judge noted that the prosecution could not “present any proof against the accused”.<\/p>\n

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Indian parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi called the verdict “disappointing”, saying those killed were “targeted for their religion”.<\/p>\n

“A deliberately shoddy investigation\/prosecution is responsible for the acquittal,” he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

Islam is a minority religion in Hindu-majority India, the world’s most populous country.<\/p>\n

During the trial, India’s counter-terrorism unit said the 2008 bombing was orchestrated to incite communal tensions, local media reported.<\/p>\n

Thakur, 55, spent nine years in jail before she was given bail in 2017.<\/p>\n

She later won an election after being fielded by the BJP to run for a seat in the central city of Bhopal.<\/p>\n

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Indian election rules allow anyone to stand for office as long as they have not been convicted of a crime.<\/p>\n

Thakur courted controversy when she called the radical Hindu assassin of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi a “patriot” — earning her a rebuke from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

She also raised eyebrows for claiming that drinking cow urine had helped cure her cancer and extolling the benefits of drinking a concoction of milk, butter and cow dung.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ex-MP, six others cleared of deadly India bombing charges<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thakur shows her ink-marked finger after casting her vote, outside a polling station in Bhopal on May 12, 2019. — Reuters MUMBAI: An Indian court on Thursday acquitted Hindu nationalist figure and former BJP lawmaker Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, along with six others, of charges related to a 2008 bombing near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra,…<\/p>\n

Read More “Ex-MP, six others cleared of deadly India bombing charges”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}