Owaisi calls Bombay HC ruling on 2006 Malegaon blasts a ‘betrayal of victims’
text_fields
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has condemned the Bombay High Court’s discharge of four accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case as a betrayal of the 31 victims and 312 injured, mostly Muslims targeted during Friday prayers.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president reacted to Wednesday’s ruling freeing Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh, Manohar Ram Singh Narwaria, and Lokesh Sharma—alleged Abhinav Bharat members—due to insufficient evidence. Charged under IPC sections for murder and conspiracy plus UAPA, they escaped trial after the HC quashed a special court’s 2025 charge-framing order for lacking judicial scrutiny.
On X, Owaisi noted the blasts’ anti-Muslim intent and initial arrest of nine Muslims, later acquitted in 2016. He drew parallels to the 2008 Malegaon case, citing former NIA prosecutor Rohini Salian’s claim of pressure to soften against accused.
The HC bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Chandak declared the probe a “dead end”, criticising the NIA for ignoring the Anti-Terrorism Squad’s chargesheet against initial Muslim suspects and offering conflicting narratives with right-wing extremists. On 8 September 2006, four bombs detonated in Malegaon, Nashik district—three near Hamidia Masjid and Bada Kabrastan, one at Mushawarat Chowk—leaving the perpetrators unidentified.