The Maharashtra government on Thursday decided to hand over the probe into the serial blasts at Malegaon on September 8 and a bomb attack at Nanded earlier this year to the Central Bureau of Investigation, official sources said.

Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil is scheduled to make a formal announcement on the issue at a press conference in Mumbai later in the day, they said.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra Police has filed a chargesheet in a special court against nine persons accused of involvement in the serial blasts in the textile town of Malegaon.

The ATS filed the chargesheet in a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court against the nine persons who have been arrested so far in connection with the blasts and said four more persons were wanted in the case.

One of the wanted persons is a Pakistani national identified as Muzzamil, the chargesheet said.

Four blasts in Malegaon on September eight killed 31 people and injured over 200. Police had said that the bombings were carried out by the banned Students Islamic Movement of India. The ATS also produced accused Abrar Ahmed, who was in police custody, in the court. He was remanded to judicial custody by designated judge Mrudula Bhatkar.

The other eight accused are currently in judicial custody and the court directed that they should be present in court on Friday when they will be given copies of the chargesheet.