For the first time a serving army officer was accused of terrorism.
What is the Malegaon blast case about and who are the accused?
Malegaon, a Muslim-dominated city in Nashik district in Maharashtra, was rocked by a bomb blast on September 29, 2008. Six people were killed and 100 others injured.
The accused in the case are: Former Bharatiya Janata MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur; Major Ramesh Upadhyaya (retd); Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit; Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi; Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi; Sameer Kulkarni; Ajay Rahirkar.
They were arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and accused of planting bombs to kill Muslims.
The case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency in 2011.
Why is the Malegaon 2008 blast case different from other such cases?
For the first time a group of Hindus was accused of carrying out terror activity in India.
It was for the first time that a serving officer in the Indian Army, Shrikant Prasad Purohit, was accused of being involved in an act of terror act.
Lieutenant Colonel Purohit was commissioned into the Maratha Light Infantry in 1994. He served in the army's counter-terrorism operation unit in Jammu and Kashmir between 2002 and 2005 before being shifted to Military Intelligence.
He was suspended from the army after his arrest and was released on bail in 2017, nine years after his arrest.
What did Purohit claim in his defence?
Purohit stated that the ATS planted evidence against him and fabricated evidence to implicate him.
He told the court he attended the meetings with the other accused as a covert military intelligence officer. The court, however, did not believe him.
Purohit alleged that witnesses in the Malegaon case were tortured on behalf of the ATS' political masters and evidence was implanted to implicate him.
He also wrote to then defence minister Manohar Parikar stating, 'I have been robbed of honour, dignity and rank. I am being punished for serving the nation.'
What did the prosecution say about Purohit?
The prosecution told the court that Purohit had prepared a separate constitution for a 'Hindu Rashtra', complete with a saffron flag.
They accused him of wanting revenge for atrocities allegedly committed by Muslims against Hindus.
What was Sadhvi Pragya's alleged role in the Malegaon blast?
She allegedly participated in the meetings and owned the scooter used in the blast.
In her defence, Pragya said she had sold the scooter in 2004 -- four years before the blast -- to Sunil Joshi.
Her lawyer told Rediff that she had taken a delivery note of the scooter and there was a broker involved in selling the vehicle.
Sunil Joshi was murdered on December 29, 2007, in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, a year before the 2008 Malegaon blast.
One of the theories that the investigating agencies floated was that Joshi was involved in the earlier Malegaon blasts of 2006, the Samjhauta Express blast, the Ajmer Sharif and Mecca Masjid blasts of 2007 that killed 111 people.
Sadhvi Pragya was one of the accused in the Sunil Joshi murder case, but was acquitted.
What did Sadhvi Pragya say in her defence?
She claimed she was innocent. She also stated that the late ATS chief Hemant Karkare tortured her in custody to extract a false confession about her involvement in the case.
What is the NIA's case?
In 2015, then public prosecutor Rohini Salian made a sensational claim that the NIA had asked her to go soft in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
However, at the end of the trial, the NIA hardened its stance against all seven accused and asked for the death penalty for them under Section 16 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Who is the trial judge in the case?
Special Trial Judge A K Lahoti. He was transferred from the case in April but the Bombay high court granted him an extension till August so that he could pronounce the judgment in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
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