2008 Malegaon blast: 15 years on, prosecution closes evidence against 7 accused

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has closed its evidence against seven accused, including BJP MP Pragyasingh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, in the Malegaon bomb blast case. The NIA informed the trial court that it does not intend to examine any further witnesses. The accused will now have the opportunity to explain the incriminating material against them. The prosecution has examined all 323 witnesses in the last five years, with 37 of them turning hostile. Lt Col Purohit's plea to recall a prosecution witness was rejected by the court.

MUMBAI: Fifteen years after a powerful bomb blast killed six people and injured 101 others in Malegaon in September 2008, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday closed its evidence against the seven accused, including BJP MP Pragyasingh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, being tried for the alleged terrorist act.

HT Image

The other accused include Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.

The NIA on Thursday informed the trial court that it does not intend to examine any further witnesses in the case. Special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal on Thursday closed the evidence by submitting a declaration that it had completed the recording of their evidence, and no more prosecution witnesses were required to be examined.

The trial court would now schedule a hearing for recording statements of the six accused under section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code, seeking their explanation for the incriminating material submitted by the prosecution against them. Thereafter the accused in the case will be given an opportunity to tender evidence, if any, in support of their claims.

The prosecution has examined all 323 witnesses in the last five years against the accused in the case and 37 of them have turned hostile and refused to support the prosecution case.

Meanwhile, the court on Thursday rejected the plea of Lt Col Prasad Purohit seeking to recall a prosecution witness examined earlier this year. Purohit had pleaded that he wanted to recall the witness to confront him with the records and documents of the Court of Inquiry held by the Army against him.

He had pleaded that at that relevant time when the witness was examined, he did not have the documents but now he has obtained the documents under the Right to Information Act. The plea was opposed by the prosecution saying the accused cannot confront a witness with inadmissible documents.

The court while rejecting his plea observed that, “In the present case the applicant has not mentioned the details of documents which he wants to confront the witness with, nor are they produced before court. Without perusing the documents, it is difficult to say if those are relevant or not.”

Besides, the court said, if the documents had been issued in the Court of Inquiry, then obviously, they would be part of the enquiry. In such circumstances, the documents of the court of inquiry are confidential in nature, the court said rejecting his plea.

Six people were killed and 101 were injured on September 29, 2008, after an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon town in Nashik district, located about 200 kilometres from Mumbai.