Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 31 : Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday welcomed the NIA court's verdict acquitting all seven accused in the Malegaon Blast Case, saying that innocent people were held in jail for an "extremely long time".
Speaking to the media, Shinde also slammed the opposition, saying that this is a slap on the face of those who called the incident "saffron terror."
"I welcome the decision. It has been 17 years. Innocent people were held in jail for an extremely long time. This has been very unfortunate for Today. Malegaon has declared them innocent," he said.
He targeted the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government regime and said that when terrorist attacks were happening in Maharashtra, there was their government at that time.
"I would like to remind you about one thing: when terrorist attacks were happening in Maharashtra and elsewhere in the country, the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government was in power. They had said that terrorism has no colour or religion or name, but in the context of the Malegaon blast, they declared it 'saffron terror'. It was their conspiracy to defame 'saffron' and Hindutva. This is the slap on the face of those who called it saffron terror," said Eknath Shinde.
Mumbai's special NIA court, on Thursday, acquitted all seven accused of being involved in the 2008 blasts in Malegaon, Nashik, Maharashtra, with the court saying that the prosecution failed to establish the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The NIA court has also ordered the Maharashtra government to award Rs 2 lakh compensation to the families of the victims and Rs 50,000 compensation to the injured.
A total of seven people were accused, including former MP Sadhvi Pragya, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhankar Dhar Dwivedi (Shankaracharya) and Sameer Kulkarni.
The court had examined 323 prosecution witnesses and 8 defence witnesses before pronouncing the verdict. The accused have been acquitted of all charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and all other charges.
"Prosecution proved that a blast occurred in Malegaon but failed to prove that a bomb was placed in that motorcycle," Judge Abhay Lohati said.
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and 95 others injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle detonated near a mosque in Malegaon City's Bhijju Chowk. Originally, 11 people were charged in the case; however, the court ultimately framed charges against seven.
The lawyer representing the victims' families said that he will be challenging the acquittal of the seven people in the High Court.