The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has filed a 4,528-page charge-sheet against 14 accused, including Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey. Three of the accused – Sameer Dange, Ramji Kalsangra and Pravin Patil – are still at large. Very dangerous and shocking revelations of the accused’s diabolic dream of turning plural India into a “Hindu Rashtra” by 2024 with the help of Israel and Napalese Maoists, etc. are making headlines in newspapers and are being discussed on TV channels.
A battery of top-notch criminal lawyers such as Mahesh Jethmalani and Shrikant Shivade are defending the accused. Only a few months ago several bars at law resolved not to take the brief of Muslim suspects of terror. The advocates who dared to do so were humiliated, beaten and their offices vandalised. The accused of Malegaon have of course every right to present their side of the story. But the legal practitioners who had opposed defending Muslim suspects of terror must be asked what they say about these senior lawyers defending the Hindutva activists accused of Malegaon blasts. Let’s see what the court of law decides.
Abu Yusuf
Gaya, Bihar