The trial of 2008 Malegaon bomb blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit, Pragya Singh Thakur and five other accused – Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi – began at a special National Investigation Agency court in Mumbai on Friday, PTI reported.

The National Investigation Agency has submitted a list of 286 witnesses – including doctors, police officers and forensic experts – and more than 200 documents. Judge Vinod Padalkar scheduled the next hearing for November 12.

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On October 30, the court charged all seven accused in the case with terror conspiracy, murder and other related offences. The seven accused have pleaded not guilty. The NIA court on October 20 rejected Purohit’s plea to not be prosecuted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Pragya Singh Thakur has claimed that the National Investigation Agency first gave her a clean chit in the case and then framed charges against her. “This was a conspiracy by the Congress but I am confident that I will come out innocent as the truth always wins,” ANI quoted her as saying after the charges were framed.

Purohit, who is suspected to have links to radical Hindutva outfit Abhinav Bharat, was arrested in 2008 for allegedly masterminding the blasts on September 29 that year that killed six people and injured several more. He had also moved the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into his alleged abduction and torture by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2008. But the petition was rejected in September.

Purohit, who had sought a Special Investigation Team inquiry in the case, is being tried under Section 18 (conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other sections of the Indian Penal Code. In April, the Supreme Court allowed him to challenge the framing of charges. Purohit spent nine years in jail before the Supreme Court granted him conditional bail in August 2017.