Malegaon blasts accused move court for bail

Nine persons arrested in connection with the 2006 bomb blasts in Maharashtra's Malegaon town on Saturday moved a special court here seeking bail.

In the bail application filed before the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act Court, the accused said the case is now being handled by National Investigation Agency, which has concluded brain mapping and polygraph tests on them, but did not find anything incriminating.

"There is a change in circumstance as the NIA has taken over the case and the agency has not found anything incriminating in the scientific tests. The defence lawyers were also present during the tests," said defence lawyer Khalid Azmi.

The bail application would be heard on October 31. In August, the accused had given consent for the tests after the NIA filed an application in the court, saying it wants to conduct scientific tests on the accused as part of the probe.

The tests were concluded last week.

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, which had probed the case initially had arrested nine persons -- Salman Farsi, Shabir Ahmed, Noorulhuda Doha, Rais Ahmed, Mohammed Ali, Asif Khan, Javed Sheikh, Farooque Ansari and Abrar Ahmed -- for their alleged involvement in the multiple blasts in the minority-dominated powerloom town in Nashik district.

The explosions near a mosque on September 8, 2006 had killed 36 people and injured over 100. In December 2006, the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Later the NIA, a special anti-terror probe agency created in 2009, took over the probe. The accused's previous bail application had been rejected in March by the court.