Mumbai (PTI): Six family members of people who died in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast have moved the Bombay High Court, challenging a special court judgment acquitting the seven accused in the case, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit.

The appeal claimed faulty investigation or some defects in the probe cannot be the ground for acquitting the accused. It also contended that a conspiracy is hatched in secrecy and hence there cannot be a direct evidence of it.

The petitioners claimed the order passed by the special NIA court on July 31 acquitting the seven accused was wrong and bad in law and hence deserves to be quashed.

 The appeal, filed on Monday by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal and five others through their advocate Mateen Shaikh, sought the HC to quash the special court judgment.

 As per the HC website, the appeal is likely to come up for hearing before a division bench headed by Justice A S Gadkari on September 15.

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

 The claim said the trial court judge should not act as a "postman or mute spectator" in a criminal trial. When the prosecution failed to elicit facts, the trial court can ask questions and/or summon witnesses, it added.

 "The trial court has unfortunately acted as a mere post-office and allowed a deficient prosecution to benefit the accused," the appeal said.

 It also pointed out that the previous special public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, had alleged pressure from the NIA to go slow in the case against the accused after which a new prosecutor was appointed.

 The appeal also raised concerns over the manner in which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted the probe and trial in the case and sought for the accused to be convicted.

 The state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), by arresting the seven persons, unearthed a large conspiracy and since then there has been no blast in areas populated by the minority community, the appeal said.

 It claimed the NIA, after taking over the case, diluted the allegations against the accused persons.

 The appeal further claimed the special court had erred in coming to the conclusion that the motorcycle used in the blast was not owned by Thakur and the RDX used was not procured by Purohit.

 There was enough evidence to show the accused persons had hatched the conspiracy to carry out the blast and the special court had erred in holding that there was only strong suspicion against the accused but not sufficient evidence to convict them, it said.

 The appeal said a conspiracy is hatched in secrecy and hence there cannot be any direct evidence of the same.

 The special court had in its judgment said mere suspicion cannot replace real proof and there was no cogent or reliable evidence to warrant conviction.

 Special judge A K Lahoti, presiding over the NIA court, had said there was no "reliable and cogent evidence" against the accused that proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

 The prosecution's case was that the blast was carried out by right wing extremists with an intention to terrorise the Muslim community in the communally sensitive Malegaon town.

 The NIA court had in its judgment flagged several loopholes in the prosecution's case and the investigation carried out, and said the accused persons deserved the benefit of doubt.

 Besides Thakur and Purohit, the accused included Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.