Mumbai, July 31 - In a major setback to the investigating authorities, a Mumbai special court Friday ordered dropping of charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against all the 11 accused, including Sadhvi Pragnya Thakur, in last year's Malegaon bomb blast case.

'The MCOCA special court granted the relief on grounds that the charge-sheet filed against one of the prime accused, Rakesh Dhawade by the police in a matter pertaining to the Jalna court, was not sustainable. Hence it dropped the MCOCA charges against the accused,' said advocate Ganesh Sovani, advocate for the Sadhvi.

According to Sovani, now the matter is likely to be transferred back to the Nashik court since the MCOCA court would cease to have jurisdiction over the case.

'However, it is too early to say now whether the accused would be granted bail or not,' Sovani told IANS shortly after the hearing in the case Friday evening.