Friday, August 1, 2025 | Vol. 68 No. 257 | 29 Pages WORLD WIDE WEB DAY THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation NATION Man with swollen pair of eyes flees from OT of a UP hospital after confusion over surgery. GAMES Cinema Dhadak 2 hits screens, here’s what we think Kuldeep Yadav should have played at Lord's and Manchester, says Sourav Ganguly Edit US under Trump is a ‘fare- whether’ friend for India CASE DEMOLISHED | Special NIA court cites lack of credible evidence, rejects conspiracy angle, says ‘strong suspicion cannot take the place of legal proof’ ALL 7 ACCUSED ACQUITTED IN MALEGAON BLAST CASE Sameer Kulkarni Charul Shah Joshi MUMBAI The special NIA court on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, of all the charges in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case, observing that “strong suspicion cannot take the place of legal proof.” After the initial discharge of several accused, seven accused were put to trial. Apart from Thakur and Purohit, Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Swami Amritanand Devtirth were accused of the blast. For want of credible evidence, all the accused were acquitted by Ramesh Upadhyay Ajay Rahirkar Special Judge A.K. Lahoti, 17 years after their arrest. Meanwhile, all of them had obtained bail. The defence stood rock solid behind Lt Col Purohit and maintained that whatever he did was a part of his duty as an intelligence officer. It only held his promotion on hold. The case revealed a rift between the Union Home Ministry, which conducted the prosecution through the NIA, and the Defence Ministry, which was convinced of its officer's innocence. On September 29, 2008, a bomb planted on a motorcycle – LML Freedom – which was parked near Shakil Goods Transport Company, between Anjuman Chowk and Bhiku Chowk, went off at 21:35 hours near a masjid in Malegaon, kill- prosecution witnesses is riddled with material inconsistencies and contradictions. Such discrepancies undermine the credibility of the prosecution case. Though there was strong suspicion of the accused, it cannot take the place of legal proof.” The special court also demolished the prosecution case about the identification of the bike allegedly used to plant the blast and its connection with Thakur; from the use of RDX as a key material for the blast to the procurement of RDX; from preparations of bombs to the meetings that were alleged to have been held by the members of the organization Abhinav Bharat. I was tortured for 13 days. My life was destroyed. I was humiliated for 17 years... I am alive only because I am a sanyasi. For 17 years, I bore the punishment... What happened was wrong. Some officers misused their powers, and we became their victims. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur Lt Col PS Purohit ing six persons and injuring around a hundred. The prosecution had named a ‘Hindu Terror’ group behind the blast and claimed that the accused had set up an organization called Abhinav Bharat, which was used as a front to carry out illegal activities. Besides, it was alleged that all the accused were members of the said organization and during various secret meetings the members had conspired to carry out the blast. The special court, however, held that, “Upon comprehensive evaluation of the entire evidence on record, there is no cogent, reliable, and acceptable evidence. The testimony of 4Contd on | Nation 4See also | Mumbai WORLD LUNG CANCER DAY NARRATIVE WAR Terrorism was never saffron, is not and will never be... Congress should apologise to the acquitted accused and Hindu society. Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM If these accused weren't the culprits, the government from 2014 to 2025 didn't investigate but continued the case. If it was a fake case, it could have been dropped and reinvestigated. Prithviraj Chavan, Maharashtra ex-CM I want to ask what punishment should be given to P Chidambaram; Digvijay Singh; Rahul Gandhi; Left, Samajwadi and Congress leaders who tried to establish the term saffron terror. Uma Bharti, MP ex-CM Neither can a Hindu be a terrorist, nor a Muslim, Sikh or Christian... The BJP is absolutely wrong in saying that the term 'Hindu terror' was coined by the Congress. Digvijay Singh, Congress leader Will the Modi & Fadnavis governments appeal the judgment the way they demanded a stay in the Mumbai train blasts case? Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM chief TARIFF TIFF India a “dead economy”, says US President Trump and calls its tariffs "too high.” Separately, he strikes a deal with Pakistan, including plans to develop its “massive” oil reserves. “Maybe they (Pak) will sell oil to India,” he says. India responds to the US tariffs, with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal telling Parliament that the Centre will take steps to safeguard national interest even as Congress’s Rahul Gandhi agrees with Trump's remarks, drawing BJP’s wrath. See 2nd Front Page