On 31st July, Mumbai special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court acquitted all seven defendants in the explosion that tore through Bhikku Chowk in Malegaon in 2008. The incident resulted in the death of 6 individuals and injured 100 others.

The authorities under the Congress government accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt. Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit (who was serving at the time), Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi after the tragedy. However, the one of longest-running terror cases in the country eventually reached its logical conclusion.

It has also revealed the multitude of deception perpetrated by the Congress government which was desperate to sustain the narrative of “Hindu terror” and “saffron terror” while framing innocent Hindus to appease their minority voter base.

Timeline of the case

September 2008: A low-intensity bomb attached to a motorbike detonated close to Bhikku Chowk in Malegaon on the evening of 29th September 2008, causing panic and chaos in the area that is sensitive to communal tensions.

The tragedy transpired during the month of Ramadan and right before the sacred Navratri festival. On 30th September, a First Information Report (FIR) was submitted at Azad Nagar Police station in Malegaon.

The state’s ruling alliance was the Congress-NCP (Nationalist Congress Party, which subsequently split into two parts) while Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) was at the centre. Hence, the grand old party viewed it as an ideal opportunity to target the majority population and their religion in order to establish a misleading equivalence with Islamic terrorism and jihad.

October 2008: On 21st October 2008, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) took over the probe arrested people connected to Hindu organisations, which gave rise to the divisive politics. This was the first time in India that the blast was attributed to members of Hindu outfits.

On 23rd October, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur whose motorbike was allegedly involved in the instance was taken into custody by the agnecy along with three others. It was by late Hemant Karkare who was killed during 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. According to investigators, she had given the vehicle to the accused and was actively involved in the planning.

Lt. Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit was arrested in November of the same year. He was detained on suspicion of being a major facilitator and ideologue. The ATS claimed that he organised meetings, recruited people and obtained the RDX used in the explosion through his affiliation with the organisation Abhinav Bharat. However, Thakur and Purohit were later given bail.

The plan was in full swing as government-controlled agencies were laboring extra hours to formulate the unfathomable concept of “Hindu terror” in the country. The ATS morphed the meaning of terror investigations and portrayed Abhinav Bharat as an organised crime gang in its enormous 4,000-page chargesheet.

January 2009: Thakur and Purohit were among the 11 arrested suspects against whom ATS filed a charge sheet in a special court on 20th January 2009. They were booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Sandeep Dange and Ramji, also known as Ramchandra Kalsangra were listed as wanted accused.

According to the special court in July, the accused would be tried in a Nashik court and the MCOCA’s regulations were not applicable in this instance. The Maharashtra government approached the Bombay High Court to challege the order in August. The court affirmed the MCOCA charges and reversed the ruling in July 2010. Afterward, Thakur and Purohit petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict, amonth later.

Congress government was attempting to instill the theory of Hindu terror in the minds of the populace while the arrested individuals were subjected to stringent laws and forced to go to courts to protect themselves from state persecution.

On 20th July 2009, Rahul Gandhi even claimed that “radicalised Hindu groups were a bigger danger than Islamist terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),” in a conversation with US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer, according to WikiLeaks.

Digvijaya Singh emerged as one of the initial Congress leaders to publicaly invoke the term “saffron terror” to attack Hindus. He is the same individual who accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of being responsible for the 26/11 attacks, thereby exonerating Pakistan.

February 2011: On 1st February 2011, another man named Pravin Mutalik was nabbed by ATS Mumbai taking the number of total arrests to 12.

April 2011: The case was turned over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 13th April 2011 which carried out additional research and re-registered the offence. Meanwhile, the agency also apprehended Lokesh Sharma and Dhan Singh Chaudhary in February and December of 2012, taking the total of arrested individuals to 14.

The phrase was also officially sanctioned by the government in 2010. Home Minister P Chidambaram informed intelligence officials in New Delhi in August of that year that “saffron terror” was a phenomena linked to many explosions. The actions outlined the government’s resolve to promote falsehoods intended to disparage the Hindu community.

April 2015: The Supreme Court again referred the matter to special court to consider the applicability of MCOCA.

February 2016: NIA informed the special court that it had obtained the Attorney General’s view regarding the applicability of MCOCA provisions in this particular case.

May 2016: On 13th May 2016, the NIA launched several chargesheets, a supplemental chargesheet and withdrew charges under the MCOCA. However, they maintained the crucial allegations against Thakur and Purohit under the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) and the Arms Act.

Citing a lack of prosecutable evidence, NIA cleared multiple accused listed by the ATS. The NIA highlighted that they were brutally tortured and assaulted to elicit confessional statements and exposed significant flaws including planting evidence, in the ATS investigation.

The case was taken over by the NIA which shifted its course and uncovered the shocking conduct of ATS. The revelations only further highlighted the malicious intent of the Congress government which clearly wanted to tarnish the reputation of Hindus and portray them in the same manner as dreaded jihadis, globally.

April 2017: On 25th April 2017, Thakur was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on health grounds but refused the same to Purohit who secured it from the Supreme Court on 21st September. All individuals were also released on bond by the end of the year.

On 27th September, Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu and Praveen Mutalik Naik were discharged from the case by the special NIA court. The court also dismissed accusations of funding terrorist activities and being part of a terrorist group under the UAPA.

Furthermore, Thakur and six others were sentenced to stand trial under the UAPA, IPC and Explosive Substances Act but the MCOCA charges were withdrawn.

The accused were penalized for their Hindu identity, while the actual perpetrators evaded any legal proceedings for their offenses. The animosity towards the majority and the drive to appease the minority was so profound that even a sadhvi and army officials were not exempt from the party’s selfish political interests.

October 2018: On 30th October 2018, the trial began after the seven defendants were formally charged. They were tried for terrorist acts under the UAPA alogside murder as well as criminal conspiracy under the IPC.

The accused were Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni. On 3rd December, the first witness in the case was examined before the trial commenced.

Thakur, Purohit and others who were earlier framed under the Congress regime continued to suffer owing to the case which altered the trajectory of their lives forever.

September 2023: On 14th September 2023, the prosecution chose to close its evidence after questioning 323 witnesses, 37 of whom became hostile.

July 2024: On 23rd July 2024, the examination of defence witnesses (eight) was completed. Over 10,800 exhibits and a significant amount of evidence were submitted during the trial. During the inquiry, more than 400 objects were also confiscated.

On 12th August, section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code allowed a special court to record an accused person’s final statements. The case was posted for the final arguments between prosecution and defence.

The exceedingly tedious case continued as the accused were not only defamed worldwide but also faced severe health crises such as cancer (Pragya Thakur) and other ailments due to the severe torture they endured at the hands of the ATS only to force them to confess to a crime they never committed.

Thakur and Purohit have consistently conveyed how they were repeatedly abused by the officials to obtain fabricated confessions from them.

April 2025: The prosecution and defence ended their concluding arguments after more than 16 years. The prosecution also included documentary evidence and legal citations with almost 1,300 pages of thorough written arguments. On 19th April 2025, the judgement was reserved.

The NIA court postponed its decision in May. According to special judge AK Lahoti, he required extra time because the case’s paperwork and evidence were extensive. “The next date, i.e., 31st July, I want all the accused to be present. If any accused remains absent, there will be legal action against them.” Afterward, he pronounced the judgement on the given date proving them innocent and closing the case after 17 years.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde even cried “Hindu terrorism” in the Parliament and then later denied using the term. He even took the names of Bharatiya Janata Party along with RSS for training and promoting the same before he was forced to express regret, amid strong protests by the saffron party. However, Congress leaders had supported his outrageous accusations.

The NIA court has now finally busted the fraudulent narrative of “Hindu terror” and “saffron terror,” despite every effort of the Congress-led ecosystem. Likewise, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also declared in the Parliament, “Today I proudly declare to the world and the people of the country that a Hindu can never be a terrorist. Hindus can never be terrorists.”