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The Supreme Court will on Monday take up an appeal filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, key accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case, challenging her prosecution under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). A similar appeal filed earlier by co-accused Lieutenant Colonel SP Purohit will also be heard. Both the accused have challenged the Bombay High Court's direction allowing the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) to invoke the provisions of MCOCA against them. The High Court had passed the direction after reversing a judgement of the designated MCOCA court, which had on July 31, 2009 quashed the charges against the duo and nine others. Beside, Pragya and Purohit, the other accused in the case are Rakesh Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre, Sameer Kulkarni and Ajay Rahirkar. The blast in Malegoan on September 29, 2008, claimed lives of eight persons and injured seventy others.

Malegaon blast case: Supreme Court to hear Sadhvi Pragya's appeal