Four years after it took over the investigations into the 2008 Malegaon blasts case allegedly involving Hindu extremists from Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad, the NIA has found itself in a controversy, with Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian going to town saying that she was told to go “soft” on the case and requesting the investigating agency to denotify her from the case.
A day after she told a national newspaper in an interview that “ever since the new Government came to power” at the Centre last year, she had been under pressure from the NIA to go “soft” on the case, Salian reiterated as much during her interaction with the media on Thursday and said that she wanted the NIA to “denotify” her formally from the case so that she could take up other cases against the agency.
Citing reasons for her decision to seek denotification from the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, Salian said that after the NDA government took over the office at the Centre in May last year, an officer of the NIA met her and told her to go “soft” on the case, in which the Hindu extremists are the accused.
“Before the matter came up for a regular hearing on June 12, the same officer came to my office and told me that his higher-ups did not want me to appear for the State in the case. He also told me that the NIA had appointed another lawyer to appear for the State of Maharashtra in the case in the trial court,” Salian said.