Nine accused in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case on Saturdaygot bail as National Investigation Agency chose not to oppose their plea for liberty.
This is the third case in which Salem has confessed his role.
A 28-year-old man accused under the stringent provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act has approached the Bombay high court seeking bail on the ground that he has been diagnosed with AIDS and has only two more years to live.
The stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act was invoked against a self-styled godman, recently caught here on charges of running a multi-crore sex racket, on Sunday with the police claiming he was "eyeing big donations" from foreign agencies, including Christian missionaries.
The nine are accused of carrying out four serial blasts in Malegaon on September 8, 2006, in which 31 people were killed and 312 injured.
Observing that she has a child to look after and is a single parent, a Special Court on Friday granted bail to Jigna Vora. Vora was held under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for her alleged complicity in the murder of fellow journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the main accused in the Malegaon blast case, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking bail, after her plea was rejected by the Maharashtra Control Of Organised Crime Act court. The court on Friday adjourned the hearing for two weeks as the Anti Terrorism Squad sought time to file its reply. Earlier, the special MCOCA court had rejected her bail application. According to Thakur's lawyer, advocate Ganesh Sowani, she had been illegally detained.
Pujari is allegedly involved in eight serious cases in Mumbai, including firing, extortion and murder. A resident of Tagore Nagar in Vikhroli, he had fled from the country years ago. He had allegedly targeted builders and businessmen in eastern Mumbai, the crime branch official said.
The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai police suffered a major setback last week, when charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Sadhvi Pragya Singh, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, were dropped by the special court's designated Judge Y B Shinde.Dropping MCOCA charges against the prime accused in the Malegaon blast case has definitely made the prosecution's task tougher.
The Bombay high court has set aside a lower court order which had kept the trial against a bomb blast accused in abeyance as he was facing charges in another case under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. Rakesh Dhawade, accused in a blast which occurred in Masjid at Jalna in 2004, had challenged the order of a sessions court, in which the judge held that the case should be kept in abeyance in view of Section 10 of MCOCA.
However, the court found fellow gang member Tariq Parveen guilty in the case.
Nine Muslim men, who were arrested in the 2006 Malegaon blasts and in jail for the past four years, on Monday moved a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court seeking bail citing Swami Aseemanand's confession pointing to a right-wing group's involvement in the attack that killed 36 persons.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, on Tuesday approached the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court seeking home food alleging that she is being served non-vegetarian food in the prison.
The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court on Monday rejected the bail application of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, arrested in connection with a Shiv Sena leader's murder and extortion case.
A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court in Mumbai on Monday granted custody of Sameer Kulkarni, one of the founder-members of right-wing group Abhinav Bharat, to the Madhya Pradesh police while remanding ten Malegaon blast accused to judicial custody till January 6.The MP police had sought the custody of Kulkarni, also accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast case, for allegedly instigating a mob to attack a church in Jabalpur and setting it on fire.
A Mumbai court on Saturday rejected the plea of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a key accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, seeking a direction to authorities that she be taken to Bhopal either by a plane or in an AC compartment of train for appearance in a murder case trial there.
Beleaguered Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde resigned from the cabinet on Tuesday, days after his close aide Walmik Karad was named as the mastermind in the murder of a village sarpanch and three months after the new Mahayuti government assumed office.
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.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who is facing charges under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for her alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, has moved the Supreme Court for bail. The petition is listed for hearing on Monday before a bench comprising Justices J M Panchal and Gyan Sudha Mishra. Pragya's counsel Sushil Balwada has filed the petition challenging the denial of bail by the Bombay high court.
The court ruling came following a state government appeal against the sessions court decision to set aside MCOCA against the Sadhvi and others.
The complex stands on a plot of land owned by Central Public Works Department and was illegally built in connivance with municipal officials, according to police.
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the decks for the investigation and prosecution of leading Bollywood financer Bharat Shah under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for his alleged links with the underworld, holding that a telephonic conversation can be the basis of registration of an First Information Report against the person.
The National Investigation Agency on Monday informed a court hearing the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case that it would file additional charge sheet against the nine accused on November 4.
The trial in the 2006 serial blasts in Mumbai trains, in which 187 people were killed and over 800 injured, resumed in Mumbai on Monday before a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court, two years after it was stayed by the Supreme Court court.
The Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court Monday issued non-bailable warrants against gutka barons J M Joshi, Rasiklal Dhariwal and Pakistan-based Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees.
They were remanded in police custody till December 27 by MCOCA Judge Ashok Bhangale later in the afternoon.
The HC said that the agency should have first presented him before the court, which issued a warrant against him.
The officers had allegedly come to the Arthur Road Jail for a surprise check on July 4 when they indirectly told Salem that they were travelling long distances and nobody was taking care of them, Ansari said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation got the nod to re-investigate the 2006 Malegaon case on Thursday. The decision by the MCOCA court throws open a lot of questions regarding the earlier investigation and the CBI now has its task cut out since it will not only have to deal with the new set of accused but also with the nine other accused who have been languishing in jail ever since the attack took place.
Retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, an accused in the last year's Malegaon bomb blast, on Friday moved to a special court here seeking permission to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Nineteen years later, remembering how terror struck Mumbai's lifeline on July 11, 2006.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has decided to move the Bombay High Court challenging the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act which has been slapped against her in connection with the Malegaon case.
The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court on Friday extended the judicial custody of the 21 alleged members of the terror group Indian Mujahideen till January 30. Bagwaan has been accused of allegedly training the other IM members on how to administer sedatives on persons they were planning to kidnap.
Shaikh, one of the main complainants in Sara-Sahara case, had allegedly been asked to vacate her house near Crawford market in south Mumbai for the construction of the Sara-Sahara shopping complex.
The most wanted man in connection with the serial blasts, which had claimed 187 lives on July 11, 2006, is Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative Azam Cheema.Cheema, 57, is based at the Bahawalpur camp of the LeT in Pakistan. He has been given the charge of fomenting terror-related activities in Delhi and Mumbai, say sources in the Intelligence Bureau.
All 10 accused in the Malegaon blast case have been booked under stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi made a rare appearance at a Bharatiya Janata Party press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, along with the party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani.He lamented that the Centre was sitting over his proposal to enact a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act-type law in Gujarat. Such a law gives the state government a wide range of powers to deal with terrorist activities, he said.
The film financier is charged under MCOCA and accused of colluding with the underworld.