
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court Monday rejected a plea by BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur seeking an exemption to appear before it in the on-going Malegaon blasts case, between June 3 and 7, due to completion of Parliament procedures. The court directed the 2008 blasts accused to remain present for the hearing this week.
The terror blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur had won her maiden Lok Sabha elections this year on a BJP ticket, leaving Congress’ Digvijaya Singh, a two-time CM, at a distant second.
Apart from Thakur, the court had on May 21 granted exemption to Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and Sudhakar Chaturvedi from appearing before it for that week, PTI had reported. After the matter was taken up by the special NIA court, the three accused filed applications through their lawyers seeking exemption from appearance.
Prior to this, the court had directed all the seven accused in the case to be present before it once a week.