Court rejects Sadhvi's plea for comfortable travel to Bhopal

Mumbai: A court here on Saturday rejected the plea of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a key accused of 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, seeking a direction to authorities that she be taken to Bhopal either by a plane or in an AC compartment of train for appearance in a murder case trial there.

Pragya had said that she was even ready to bear the expenses of the journey, but the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court rejected her application.

"We shall move the Bombay High Court on January 23 against this ruling," said her lawyer, Ganesh Sovani.

In another development, hearing on her bail plea before the MCOCA court was deferred to February 4.

Pragya, lodged in a jail here in connection with the blast trial, is also an accused in the case related to murder of RSS activist Sunil Joshi. The next hearing in Joshi case at Bhopal court is on February 2.

Joshi, a suspect in the Samjhauta Express blast case, was shot dead at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh on December 29, 2007.

While twelve persons, including Sadhvi and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, have been arrested to date for the September 29, 2008 blast in Malegaon in Maharashtra, in which six persons were killed.

The trial in the blast case is yet to start as some of the accused have challenged the invocation of MCOCA before the Supreme Court.