A special NIA court, in a recent judgment acquitting all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, has dismissed claims that senior officers from the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had directed an investigating officer to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Special Judge A.K. Lahoti stated that the court found no merit in the arguments presented by the lawyer of Sudhakar Dwivedi, an accused who has now been acquitted.

The lawyer had alleged that ATS investigating officer Mehboob Mujawar refused to carry out the order to arrest Bhagwat, stating that he found no evidence of his involvement. Mujawar claimed he was subsequently "entangled in a false case by ATS" as a result of his refusal.

Mujawar's claims, which he initially made in 2016, resurfaced recently, a day after the trial court's verdict in the blast case. He reiterated that senior ATS officers had instructed him to arrest Bhagwat, but he refused because he found no role of Bhagwat in the alleged offense. Mujawar alleged that the objective behind the purported order was to establish the existence of "saffron terror". He further claimed that former IPS officer Parambir Singh and other higher officials had pressured him to arrest the RSS chief, alleging that the accused in the Malegaon blast had met with Bhagwat before the crime.

The court, however, stated that the documents submitted by the defense lawyer did not provide sufficient evidence to support the claim. The judge noted that these documents included a certified copy of an application and a statement given by Mujawar in a separate case but that Mujawar was not examined as a witness in the Malegaon blast case. The court emphasized that these documents alone could not be considered evidence in the trial and that the claim must be proved through the testimony of the concerned witness.

The court also referenced the statement of ATS ACP Mohan Kulkarni, who denied the suggestion that Mujawar was sent to arrest any member of the RSS. Kulkarni stated that Mujawar was sent to trace two accused, Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange.

The 2008 Malegaon blast case pertains to a bombing in a communally sensitive town in Maharashtra that killed six people and injured over 100. The NIA took over the case in 2011. Among those acquitted in the case are Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a former BJP MP, and Lt Col Prasad Purohit. The court acquitted the accused, observing that the prosecution failed to prove the case, and therefore, the accused deserved the benefit of the doubt. The court noted that while the prosecution proved that a bomb blast occurred, it failed to establish that the explosive was placed on the motorbike allegedly belonging to Thakur.

Following the verdict, Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, commented that the "conspiracy of 2008 has been exposed" and that the then government created terms like "Hindu terror" and "saffron terrorism". The BJP also posted a video clip of Mujawar's statement, calling it "an abuse of power, a conspiracy against the nation, and a sinister plot to malign nationalists".