The National Investigation Agency NIA decision to plunge charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 Malegaon blast allows key accused Pragya Singh Thakur to walk free. But Lt Col Prasad Purohit, another key accused, will continue to face charges as no military official supported his claim that he was a bona fide intelligence official who had infiltrated extremist Hindu groups. Seven people were killed in a blast at Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

Relevently, “The evidence against Thakur was insufficient to prosecute her,” said NIA chief Sharad Kumar.

However, the NIA officials said in its statement that, ““But the evidence with regard to these meetings came from confessional statements of three accused – Sudhakar Dhar Dwevedi, Rakesh Dhawade and Praveen Takkalki – recorded under MCOCA. But once MCOCA was dropped, the statements lost their evidentiary value and this weakened the case against Thakur”.

Confessional statements recorded under the MCOCA are admissible as evidence in court, but the NIA said that the ATS had invoked MCOCA in haste. An accused needs to have been charge-sheeted in two earlier cases before the MCOCA can be invoked against him or her. The ATS charged an accused, Rakesh Dhawade, under MCOCA and, with that, invoked the law in the Malegaon case.