Malegaon blast case: Mumbai court drops charges against nine accused

Mumbai: In a huge development, a court on Monday dropped charges against nine Muslim youths for their alleged role in the September 2006 Malegaon blast case due to lack of evidence in which more than 37 people had died in the Malegaon blast. The order was issued by Sessions Judge VV Patil while heading a discharge applications filed by the accused. Reacting to the development, Raees Ahmed, one of the discharged accused, said, ' ' Though late but I am happy that justice has been finally delivered. ' ' AMIM leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, however, was critical in slamming NIA over its faulty probe into the case. One accused in the case had died, while six were released earlier in 2011 on bail. Two other accused have been convicted in the 2006 train blast case. The National Investigation Agency had last week told a Mumbai court it has found no evidence to link nine Muslims arrested in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case to the terror attack, a move that paved the way for their release. Following Aseemanand ' s confession, the accused moved the court with discharge applications. In May this year, NIA filed its charge sheet in the case against four accused  identified as Lokesh Sharma, Dhan Singh, Manohar Singh and Rajendra Choudhary, contradicting the findings of the ATS and the CBI. Malegaon had seen another terror attack on September 29, 2008, also allegedly masterminded by ' Abhinav Bharat ' in which seven persons were killed.