19th witness turns hostile in 2008 Malegaon blast case

During his testimony, the witness had complained that then Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare had threatened to implicate him in the case if he failed to name certain people.

Mumbai: A retired Indian Army officer who deposed on Thursday in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case was declared hostile by the prosecution. The officer was the 243rd witness to depose in the case and the 19th to be declared hostile.

The statement of the witness was recorded by the Maharashtra ATS on December 27, 2008. (Manoj Patil/HT PHOTO)

During his testimony, the witness had complained that then Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare had threatened to implicate him in the case if he failed to name certain people.

The statement of the witness was recorded by the Maharashtra ATS on December 27, 2008. In his statement to the ATS, the witness had said that he had attended two meetings of the group involving the accused persons -- one held in January 2008 at Bhopal and the other in April 2008 at New Delhi.

He also revealed that the conspiracy meetings were also attended by accused Col Prasad Purohit, BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni and the accused spoke about forming a pure Hindu organization for academic ideological indoctrination.

They also spoke about political ex-communication -- in the form of elimination -- of those opposed to the idea. In the meeting, Purohit also spoke about training youth.

On Thursday, when the witness was examined before a special court by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), he did not identify anybody except Col Prasad Purohit and that too only in the capacity of a neighbour as they were staying in Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh.

When special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal started examining him, he said he did not remember anything.

The witness also complained to special NIA judge Prashant R Sitre that he was tortured by the Maharashtra ATS, especially the then chief Hemant Karkare. He said this during a cross-examination by Col Purohit’s counsel advocate Shridhar Phadke.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

The accused facing trial in the case are Purohit, politician Pragya Singh Thakur alias Sadhvi Pragya, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.

Their trial began on November 2, 2018. The prosecution agency has submitted a list of around 286 witnesses that include doctors, police officials, forensic experts and panch witnesses.