Malegaon lawyer says verdict raises damning questions about investigative failures, political interference, and erosion of communal harmony
The scene of the blast site as pictured in Malegaon, some 175 miles (280 kilometres) from Mumbai, on September 30, 2008. Pic/AFP
On September 29, 2008, one of the holiest nights of Ramadan, Bhikku Chowk, nestled at the intersection of three mosques in Malegaon, a bomb strapped to a motorcycle detonated at 9.33 pm. The blast killed six and left over a 100 injured. Seventeen years later, on July 31, Bhikku Chowk — now renamed Shaheed Hemant Karkare Chowk — wears a grim silence. The special NIA court has acquitted all accused. For the people of Malegaon, the true victims, this is the worst betrayal.
It is September 29, 2008, one of the holiest nights of Ramadan. Bhikku Chowk, nestled at the intersection of three mosques in Malegaon, hums with life as Namazis offer Tarawih prayers. Police barricades block bikers from entering the women-only market, where burqa-clad women shop frantically for Eid. Tea stalls and snack vendors brace for the post-prayer rush. Ten-year-old Farheen, in a sky-blue dress, steps out to buy beef tikkis from a nearby cart. Mohammed Ishaque, 20, sips tea at Nisar Dairy. Abdullah Ansari, 75, owner of Shakeel Goods Transport, grows uneasy about an unattended motorcycle parked outside his office. Despite his complaint to the local police chowki via Nisar Dairy’s waiter Iqbal, an hour earlier, it remains ignored. At 9.33 pm, a bomb strapped to that motorcycle detonates. Farheen bears the blast’s full force, killed instantly. Ishaque and Ansari survive, scarred by severe injuries.
Seventeen years later, on July 31, Bhikku Chowk — now renamed Shaheed Hemant Karkare Chowk — wears a grim silence. A special NIA court in Mumbai has acquitted all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit. Justice, inscribed in black ink on judicial paper, feels hollow. For the people of Malegaon, the true victims, it is a betrayal that stings the heart.
A police official keeps guard at the gate of the Hamidiya Mosque where three bombz exploded after Friday prayers at Malegaon in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, on September 9, 2006. pic/Getty Images
The 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts mark a dark chapter in the history of Indian Muslims. A sinister trend of targeting mosques and Muslim localities began as a spark in Nanded, Parbhani, and Jalna in 2003, erupting into flames in Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer, and the Samjhauta Express. The anguished cries of Indian Muslims for thorough investigations echoed unanswered, like shouts lost at Mahabaleshwar’s Arthur Point. Then came the 2008 blast. It was the courage of ATS chief Hemant Karkare that turned the tide, exposing a conspiracy linked to Hindu extremists of Abhinav Bharat.
Yet, the 2025 verdict, citing insufficient evidence, raises damning questions about investigative failures, political interference, and the erosion of communal harmony. The ATS’s initial probe meticulously implicated the accused, tracing the motorcycle to Thakur and identifying Purohit as the supplier of RDX explosives. But when the case shifted to the CBI and later the NIA, the investigation faltered. Former special public prosecutor Rohini Salian publicly accused the NIA of going “soft” on the accused after a change in Central government. Shockingly, 39 of the 323 witnesses turned hostile during the trial, an unprecedented collapse in a terror case in post-Independence India.
Equally outrageous was the defence of accused Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi (alias Dayanand Pandey), who denied the blast’s very occurrence. This forced 101 injured victims to travel from Malegaon to Mumbai, bearing their scars in court — a grotesque reversal where victims, not perpetrators, seemed on trial. Purohit’s claim that he attended Abhinav Bharat meetings for “intelligence-gathering” is equally baffling. If true, why did he not alert his superiors to prevent the blast? Was this incompetence or deliberate sabotage?
Farheen’s father, clutching a faded passport-sized photo of his youngest daughter in a small diary, remains a solitary figure of grief. The six lives lost, including his “happiest child,” and the 101 injured still await justice. At the Chowk, a marble stone bearing Hemant Karkare’s photograph stands as a silent rebuke. This verdict is not justice but a mockery of it — a wound on Malegaon’s soul that demands accountability, reform, and truth.
The writer is a journalist and lawyer based in Malegaon
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