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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Samir Kulkarni have withdrawn their discharge applications from the Bombay High Court in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Also, Lt Col Prasad Purohit withdrew his application claiming that UAPA sanction to prosecute him was defective. Earlier on November 16, a Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court while hearing the 2008 Malegaon blast case issued a bailable warrant against a witness who failed to appear despite being summoned twice for recording his statement. The witness was in the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad team which investigated the blast case initially. According to the sources related to the case, the said witness is not keeping well for around a year and so he is not coming for recording his statement. However, the witness conveyed that he would come to record his statement once he got well.Since he did not appear after two summons, Court has issued a bailable warrant against him. Pertinent to mention, 29 witnesses in the 2008 Malegaon blast case turned hostile so far. On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 others were injured after an explosive device placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra's Malegaon city in Nashik town. All the seven accused in the case are currently on bail. On October 23, 2008, the Maharashtra ATS made its first arrest in connection to the case by apprehending BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. On January 20, 2009, the ATS filed a charge sheet in the case after completing its investigation. In April 2011, the central government transferred the investigation into the case to the NIA. Later, other accused including Sameer Kulkarni, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahilkar and Sudhakar Chaturvedi were also caught. (ANI)
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