The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked how the findings of the NIA, which had absolved nine Muslim men in its chargesheet and instead named four members of a Hindu extremist organisation in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case, were so different from those of the CBI and Maharashtra ATS.
A bench of justices Naresh Patil and NW Sambre, which was hearing petitions challenging the discharge of the nine men in the trial court, pointed out that the Anti-Terrorism Squad, which probed the case first, booked them for the blasts which had claimed 37 lives, and the CBI, which took over the case a year later, endorsed it.
However, the the National Investigating Agency (NIA), to which the probe was transferred in 2011, filed a chargesheet absolving them of all charges, and instead named four others, who were members of a Hindu extremist organisation, as the accused.