Member of Parliament Pragya Singh Thakur became emotional on Tuesday while providing her statement under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) before a Mumbai Court during the trial in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, in which she is one of the accused.
The special National Investigation Agency court was recording Thakur's statement along with the seven other accused.
Thakur was given an opportunity to clarify the circumstances that are part of the evidence against her.
She was asked approximately 60 questions regarding the testimonies of the doctors who had treated the injured and conducted autopsies after the blast, and who had been asked about Thakur.
Thakur became uncomfortable when she was asked questions describing the injuries of the victims, as later stated by her lawyers JP Mishra and Prashant Maggu to the media.
She visibly became emotional while in the witness box. Special judge AK Lahoti then paused the proceedings for 10 minutes to allow Thakur to calm down.
Her examination will also continue tomorrow.
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device placed on a motorbike detonated near a mosque in Malegaon.
The case was initially investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) before being transferred to the NIA in 2011.
The special court then formally charged Thakur and the other accused under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in October 2018.
The investigating agency had listed 400 witnesses in its chargesheet, but unfortunately, 21 of them passed away during the trial.
The trial began almost five years after the prosecution concluded its evidence.
The NIA presented 323 witnesses in court, out of which 34 turned hostile.
The agency informed the court that there were no further prosecution witnesses to present in the case.
On September 14, the NIA informed the Court that it had finished recording the evidence of the accused.
As a result, the Court summoned the seven accused to be present in court so that their statements could be recorded.
In addition to Thakur, the remaining six individuals accused, namely Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Sudhakar Dwivedi, and Sameer Kulkarni, were also in attendance today.
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