India, July 31 -- A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday acquitted all the seven accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, in the September 2008 Malegaon blast case in which six persons were killed and nearly 100 were injured.

The other five accused were retired army officer Ramesh Shivaji Upadhyay (73), Pune-based businessman Samir Sharad Kulkarni (53), Purohit's close associates Ajay Eknath Rahirkar (56) and Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi (53), and Sudharkar Dhar Dwivedi, also known as Swami Amrutanand Devtirth (56), a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya, all of whom were arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

Special judge AK Lahoti sai...