With as many as 16 ‘important witnesses’ having already turned ‘hostile’ in the 2008 Malegaon blasts cases, the Maharashtra Congress on Thursday accused the NIA of ‘weakening’ the case and ‘not prosecuting all the accused with honesty and sincerity’.
In a letter shot off to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Vineet Agrawal, State Congress’ Working president Mohd. Arif Naseem Khan recalled that the ATS, under its martyred chief Hemant Karkare, had ‘cracked’ the Malegaon blasts case, arrested prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and filed a charge-sheet in the trial court.
“Subsequently, the NIA took over the case and filed a supplementary charge-sheet and exonerated Sadhivi Pragya at the behest of the Central government and dropped MCOCA charges against the case and has in the process weakened the case,” Naseem Khan said.
In a serious accusation masde against the central investigating agency, Khan said: “The NIA is not prosecuting all the accused with honesty and sincerity. (Out of 223 witnesses, 16 important accused have till today accused. Hundred more witnesses are left to be accused. These witnesses are crucial. They need to be protected,” the Congress leader said.
“The NIA has not challenged any order passed in favour of the accused in higher court which shows its intentions clearly. Strict supervision by the ATS is a must for a fair trial and effective prosecution, since the ATS had recorded the statements of maximum and conducted most part of the investigations,” Khan wrote in his letter to the State ATS chief.
“So that the guilty can be punished and justice can be delivered to the public at large and through your action, a tribute will be paid to the martyred ATS chief Hemant Karkare,” Khan wrote.
It may be recalled that an improvised explosive kept under the seat of a LML Freedom motor-bicycle had exploded between Bhikku Chowk and Anjuman Chowk, near Noorani Masjid, at Malegaon in north Maharashtra, on the night of September 29, 2008, leaving six persons dead and injuring 101 others.
Based on a strong case against the accused by the ATS which investigated the case initially before the NIA took over the case a Mumbai-based special court had on October 30, 2018 framed charges against Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and five other accused under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and various other sections of the IPC for their alleged involvement in the 2008 blasts.
In his letter to the State ATS chief, Khan stated: “It seems witnesses are under the influence of the accused and are deliberately taking the names of the BJP-RSS people to get mileage in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and defame the Maharashtra government and the ATS, as Prosecution Witness no 220 went beyond what was recorded in his earlier statements by mentioning the name of (UP chief minister) Yogi (Adityanath) etc and the irony is that Special Public Prosecutor did not take objection on it".
Khan went on to say that after the prosecution witness no 220, a leading national television channel went to town confirming that the witness had taken the name of UP chief Yogi Adityanath’s name.
Khan said that “the ATS as an investigation agency is being maligned as to be anti-Hindu” and that under the circumstances to maintain the trust of public in ATS and on the Maharashtra government, it was necessary that ATS deployed its officers who were part of the investigations in the case to attend the court which is hearing the case on a day-to-day basis.
Seven key accused, including Lt Col Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya, are being tried under sections 16 (committing a terror act) and 18 (criminal conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), and sections 120(b) (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 326 (intentionally causing harm to others) of the IPC. They were framed harges under the Explosives Substances Act.
On December 27, 2017, a Special NIA court had dropped charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and five other key accused in the much-discussed case. However, the NIA court observed that it could not exonerate Sadhvi Pragya from the case as her motorbike has used in the blast.