Sep 3 (Mumbai Mirror): Four months after a Supreme Court order, directing the Malegaon 2008 blast case to be tried expeditiously, the case will finally be heard from September 5 on a day-to-day basis in the special court of Judge S D Tekale of the City Civil Court.

When the trial begins, the court is likely to hear the bail applications of accused Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and Sudhakar Dwivedi, if the National Investigating Agency files a reply to their bail applications.

SC had, on April 15, directed Bombay High Court to assign a special court to hear the case since it was over six years old. While HC had already assigned a special court to hear the case, it was further delayed as a judge had not been notified as a special judge.

In the present case, the central Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act as well as the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) have been applied on the accused. This means that only a judge who has been notified by the Centre as well as the state can try the case. Judge S D Tekale's notification from the Centre came in June, but that from the home department came only a few days ago.

"A separate court had been assigned as per SC's direction a while ago. However, the judge has been notified by the State Home Department only now," Registrar General of the Bombay High Court Mangesh Patil told Mirror.

The Malegaon blasts case of 2008 turned controversial after NIA's former special public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, alleged that she was asked to go soft in the case. NIA denied the allegations and countered it saying that the trial in the case was yet to start and the special public prosecutor's work begins only later.

Purohit and Dwivedi filed for bail soon after the Supreme Court order citing "deep rooted political conspiracy" as the reason for their "false implication". The accused have also relied on a recent SC order, according to which their bail application needs to be decided independent of MCOCA applied to accused.

On September 29, 2008, the Malegaon blast claimed four lives and injured 79 others while another blast at the same time in Modasa in Gujarat killed one. Investigations in the case pointed to alleged Hindu extremists based in Indore. Twelve people were arrested, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit.