Nashik: Welcoming the verdict of a special court in Mumbai that exonerated eight Muslim youths in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts case today, an NCP MLA Asif Shaikh demanded that ATS officials be punished for "framing the youths".

"I demand that action be taken against the investigating ATS officers for framing the youths in the case and ruining their lives by keeping them in jail," said Shaikh, a legislator from Malegaon from where the youths hailed.