Another Witness Turns Hostile In Malegaon Blast Case, 30th So Far

2008 Malegaon blast trial: NIA witness on Thakur, Purohit’s Hindutva lectures declared hostile, 30th in this row.

The witness had earlier made revelations in his statement regarding numerous meetings he attended of the right-wing outfit Abhinav Bharat, allegedly tagged with ‘Saffron Terrorism’ as ‘perpetrated by the Congress’. 

Jyoti Shinde | HENB | Mumbai | march 23, 2023::  In a peculiar turn, another witness turns hostile in 2008 Malegaon blast case was declared hostile after he did not support the prosecution’s case on Thursday.

The hostile witness initially gave statements under CrPC 161 and 164 when ATS was originally investigating the case. According to the prosecution, this is the 30th witness to turn hostile in the case.

In November last year, the 29th witness had turned hostile in the case. 

This person had given statements to the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in 2008 about accused Lt Col Prasad Purohit and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.

Previously, the 28th witness turned hostile on November 5 after he told the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court that he does not remember the statement he had given to the earlier investigative agency Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), which was then operated under a Congress Govt in the state.

This witness had reportedly given a statement against the sitting Bhopal MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and another accused, identified as Dayanand Pandey, of this case during the initial investigation done by Maharashtra ATS.

However, on November 5, he came before the special NIA court and was confronted with the facts of his statement. He said that he doesn’t remember what he had said in his statement to Maharashtra ATS earlier. He told the special NIA court that he is 75 years old and that is why it is difficult for him to remember what he had said in his statement.

Earlier in September and August, two other witnesses of the case had turned hostile during the special NIA court hearing. One of them, who worked at a hotel in Indore, refused to partially say in court what he had stated earlier to the investigating agency.

On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 others were injured after an explosive device placed on a motor-cycle exploded in Maharashtra’s Malegaon city in Nashik district.

On October 23, 2008, the Maharashtra ATS made its first arrest in connection to the case by apprehending BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

Later, other accused including Sameer Kulkarni, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahilkar and Sudhakar Chaturvedi were also arrested.

On January 20, 2009, the ATS filed a charge sheet in the case after completing its investigation. In April 2011, the central government transferred the investigation into the case to the NIA.

From this row of hostility against the prosecution related to the Malegaon blast case, one thing is clear that the witnesses of this case were collected in a certain way to prove a ‘saffron terrorism’ as hatched by the then Congress Government in both Central and State levels.

In his book, ‘मालेगांव बम-विस्फोट के पीछे का अदृश्य हाथ’ – The invisible hand behind the Malegaon Bomb-blast‘, the writer Vikram Bhave tried to expose how the then Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, the National Investigation Agency and the then Congress government tried to prove the existence of only saffron terrorism by implicating the innocent Hindu people who had no connection with those bomb blasts in Malegaon in 2006 and 2008 both. The book hinted that many congress leaders were the conspirators to create a bogey of ‘Hindu Terror’ to make it equal to Islamic Terrorism in reality. 

Just, two days back, former CBI Director,  M Nageswara Rao sought an apology from the then Home Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for his utmost vilification of “Hinduism, Hindus, Hindu Society and India’ in a row to paint a ‘Saffron Terrorims’ as such.  

It has been 14 years since the 2008 Malegaon blasts occured, more than 100 witnesses are yet to be examined before the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, as reported.

Courtesy: ANI and PTI.