Maharashtra CM on NIA court verdict in Malegaon blast case: ‘Terrorism was never saffron & will never be'

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday welcomed the acquittal of seven people in the Malegaon blast case, saying “terrorism was never saffron and will never be.”

"Aatankvad bhagwa na kabhi tha, na hai, na kabhi rahega," ("Terrorism was never saffron, is not, and will never be") the Maharashtra CM posted on X.

Mumbai’s special NIA court today acquitted all the seven accused -- including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit – in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. The blast had killed six people and injured over a hundred.

The court cited a lack of "cogent and reliable" evidence and concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde also welcomed the NIA court verdict and said that terrorism has no religion. “We welcome the court’s judgement. The then government, when blasts were happening across the country, had said that terrorism has no religion. But in the case of the Malegaon blast, they labelled it as saffron terrorism. The court’s verdict is a slap in the face of those people," he told CNN-News18.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that terrorism should not be associated with any religion and no faith advocates violence.

"Neither can a Hindu be a terrorist, nor a Muslim, Sikh or Christian," Singh told PTI Videos in Parliament complex after the verdict.

"Every religion is an embodiment of love, goodwill, truth, and non-violence," he added, underlining that all religions are rooted in peace.

He dismissed allegations by BJP leaders that the Congress had coined the term “Hindu terrorism” for political gain. “The BJP is absolutely wrong in saying that the term ‘Hindu terror’ was coined by the Congress,” Singh said.

2008 Malegaon blast case

An explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in the town, located about 200 km from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008, killing six persons and injuring 101 others.

The lawyer representing the victims' families said that he would be challenging the acquittal of the seven people in High Court, according to ANI.