Disposing of the plea on August 1, special judge AK Lahoti, however, noted the contentions raised by the accused are kept open and he is at liberty to point them out at the time of final hearing.
The National Investigation Agency, which has been struggling to collect evidence in the 2006 Malegaon blast case, is likely to quiz some of the Maharashtra ATS officials who had probed the case.
The bomb that exploded in Pune last week was made by mixing ammonium nitrate with potassium chlorate and small ball bearings were used as shrapnels to inflict injuries, but there was no gelatin or RDX in it, Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Sqaud said on Thursday.
The court passed the order after the Member of Parliament from Bhopal, a prime accused in the case, sought another exemption from appearance citing health problems.
Terming the invocation of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against them as inappropriate, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Abhinav Bharat treasurer Ajay Rahirkar, both accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast case, on Saturday moved the special MCOCA court seeking bail.Purohit and Rahirkar, in their bail applications, claimed that the Anti-Terrorism Squad had no evidence linking them to the blast and that they have nothing to do with the case.
A Pune court on Friday rejected Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit's plea for an extension of his police custody in the city. Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivde told rediff.com that the armyman had been physically and mentally tortured by the ATS, while he was in their custody.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad on Saturday procured transit remand for the key accused in the 2000 Kanpur bomb blast case from a local court in Mumbai.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad in Maharashtra on Tuesday arrested two more persons in connection with the Thane auditorium blast case earlier this month, taking the number of arrested to four. Vikram Bhave and Santosh Angre were arrested in connection with the blast which injured seven people, a senior ATS officer said.
Under attack over his claim about a call from late top cop Hemant Karkare, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Tuesday produced a record of the conversation the slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief had with him on 26/11 and sought an apology from Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil and all others who had dubbed him a 'liar'.
Exactly a year after the Malegaon blast shook the powerloom town in Maharashtra leaving seven people dead, one of the surviving victims has revealed that he had alerted the local police about an abandoned scooter, but no action had been taken.
The activist's family members last month filed an application in the high court seeking for the probe to be transferred to the ATS claiming that the SIT has not been able to make a breakthrough in the case yet.
More than 35 hours after the terrorists struck, there was a lull in Mumbai on Friday as National Security Guard commandos and security personnel closed in on Nariman House for a final assault and most of the residents chose to stay indoors.
The development coincided with the Anti-Terrorism Squad filing its charge sheet in the Malegaon blasts case.
Vaibhav Raut, a member of 'Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti', was apprehended from Bhandar Aali in Nallasopara west on Thursday night.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil has directed the police to probe the case of the 'missing' bulletproof vest of Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare, who died fighting terrorists during the 26/11 attacks.
The four, who are in jail since their arrest in 2013, had approached the high court in 2016 after a special court rejected their bail pleas in June that year.
The conspiracy was hatched by Virendra Sinh Tawde (already arrested), Kalaskar and others, CBI lawyer said.
The celebrated police officer was also involved in numerous operations against gangsters in Mumbai and terrorists during his decades-long career.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday ruled out reinvestigation in 2010 Pune's German Bakery blast case, saying there was no need for it.
In a sensational claim, a suspended Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad officer has told a Solapur court that two of the absconding accused in 2008 Malegaon blasts case are in fact dead but falsely shown as "alive" by high ranking police officers.
Safdar Nagori, the general secretary of the proscribed outfit Student's Islamic Movement of India, was in Mumbai on July 11, 2006, when a series of explosions in suburban trains claimed 187 lives and injured thousands. Nagori is said to be acquainted with serial train blasts case accused and SIMI's Maharashtra unit general secretary Ehtesham Siddiqui. However, investigators have not been able to establish any link between Nagori and the serial blasts.
Mumbai police has received text messages warning of a '26/11-like' attack on the city from a phone number with Pakistan's country code and a person has been detained in this connection, officials said on Saturday.
'When there is a spontaneous movement against the State, it is easily crushed. But it is difficult to crush a guided movement because it has the support of activists and social workers'
The Maharashtra ATS on Monday arrested two alleged associates of top IM operative Yasin Bhatkal in connection with the 2011 serial blasts in the metropolis.
The Volvo car with the Maharashtra registration number was seized on Monday, the official said, adding there is no clarity so far on who owned this car.
The residents of Bhatkal, a port town in northern Karnataka, feign ignorance when asked about Yasin, one of their most infamous residents.
The scene was recreated late on Friday night, in which Waze was asked to walk there for some time wearing a white kurta.
The EC notice stated that it was a violation of chapter 4 of the model code of conduct, which pertains to maintenance of harmony between castes, communities, religious, linguistic groups.
"You never know at which moment it can create problems for her. There is a problem with her L4 and L5 bones (vertebrae) as they got dislocated because ATS Maharashtra (investigators) threw her on the floor," Upma Thakur, Pragya Thakur's sister said.
The navy, police, the anti-terror squad and the army are involved in a massive search operation. Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore reports
A witness who is a former army official turned hostile in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast trial in Mumbai on Thursday.
The officer said further investigation and forensic analysis will be done after the mobile handset and details of the seizure are received from Tihar Jail authorities.
A 1990-batch officer of the Maharashtra cadre, Waze, also known as an "encounter cop", was earlier suspended after his arrest by the National Investigation Agency in the SUV-cum-murder case on March 13.
Tributes were also paid at the places targeted by terrorists including Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Cama and Albless Hospital, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, the Oberoi Trident, Nariman House, the Jewish community centre, and the memorial of ASI Tukaram Omble who was martyred while overpowering Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist who was captured alive.
The Bhopal MP was pulled up and asked to refrain from making statements that go against the party's programmes and ideology
'The caller is a truck driver from Marathwada region of Maharashtra. We have learnt that he has a habit of drinking. He has been detained along with one more person and the process to register an offence is currently on,' Mumbai police said.
Senior Indian Police Service officer Rakesh Maria was appointed as Mumbai's police commissioner on Saturday, a fortnight after Satyapal Singh quit the post to join politics.
Improved coordination between various security agencies and a quick response mechanism are the key to Mumbai's security in the nine years following the 26/11 attacks.
When the HC asked the NIA to produce the transcript of the recording of the Bhopal meeting, the agency said it was not aware if it existed.
The chemist, Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe (54), was killed on June 21, and Maharashtra police have arrested five persons in connection with the incident.
