SC dismisses bail plea of Sadhvi Pragya

New Delhi, Sep 23 (PTI) The Indian apex court on Friday
refused to grant bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thaku, who is
facing charges under stringent MCOCA for her alleged
involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case.
"The plea that Article 22(2) of the Constitution was
violated is based on the averment by the appellant that she
was arrested on October 10, 2008. Factually, this plea has
not been found to be correct. The appellant was in fact
arrested only on October 23, 2008. The affidavit filed by the
appellant on November 17, 2008, on a careful perusal shows
that the appellant was not arrested on October 10, 2008," the
apex court said.
Dismissing her bail plea, a bench of justices J M Panchal
and H L Gokhale said Pragya cannot claim any indefeasible
right to bail merely because the charge sheet was not filed
within the statutory period of 90 days.
"There is yet another aspect of the matter. The right
under Section 167(2)of CrPC to be released on bail if the
charge sheet is not filed within 90 days from the date of
first remand is not an absolute or indefeasible right," the
bench said.
The bench passed the order on a petition filed by Thakur
contending Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had failed
to file the charge sheet against her within the mandatory 90
days of her arrest on October 23, 2008.
Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29,
2008, in Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in
Nasik district in west Indian state of Maharashtra. The probe
into the blast had brought into focus the alleged involvement
of some right-wing Hindu groups.
Pragya alleged she had been subjected to "harassment,
physical torture and verbal abuse" by the ATS during her
"illegal" custody from October 10, 2008, onwards.
The bench, after going through the record, found that her
averments were not correct and she was arrested only on
October 23 and not on October 10.