Mumbai, Jul 19

A special court today allowed National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take custody of three key accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case for further interrogation from July 22 for eight days.The NIA, which recently took over the investigations from Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), had urged the special court, set up under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), to allow them custodial interrogation of the three accused in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

The accused are Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sudhakar Udaybhan Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey alias Shankaracharya and Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyaya.

According to the chargesheet filed by ATS earlier, Purohit, along with 11 others, had masterminded and carried out a blast in Malegaon on September 29, 2008, in which six persons were killed.

Purohit, who was serving in Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh, was arrested on November 5, 2008 and has been charged for being one of the main conspirators behind the blast.

He is also accused of procuring the explosives used in the blast and is alleged to be the founder of the extremist group 'Abhinav Bharat', which was formed in 2007 allegedly to propagate a separate Hindu nation.