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Malegaon blast: Was forced by ATS to implicate Yogi, RSS leaders, says witness
The witness is related to Lt Col Prasad Purohit, one of the accused in the case. He is the 15th witness to turn hostile.
A witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case has told the court that he was threatened by senior Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officers to implicate Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and four Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders, including Swami Aseemanand and Indresh Kumar.
The witness, who is related to Lt Col Prasad Purohit, one of the accused in the case, was declared hostile by the prosecution as he retracted his earlier statement and became the 15th witness to turn hostile. Till now, the prosecution has examined around 220 witnesses.
The witness, whose identity was not revealed, told the Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court that he was threatened by ATS officers Param Bir Singh (who later became Mumbai police commissioner) and deputy commissioner of police, who were then posted with the Maharashtra ATS.
“They told me our story is ready you just have to take names of people we tell you. They had even threatened me, if I don’t take the names, will have to face consequences. They had detained me for several days,” the witness told the court while he was cross-examined by Purohit’s counsel.
The witness told the court that five names were given to him and he was asked to mention them in his statement.
“You can lodge a complaint against the officers if you were tortured. Do you need police protection?” judge Prashant R Sitre asked the witness.
Special NIA public prosecutor Avinash Rasal pointed out to the court that the witness never lodged a complaint about being tortured by the agency.
The witness earlier told the Maharashtra ATS that he was associated with Abhinav Bharat, a right-wing group whose name has been allegedly linked to the blast conspiracy. He also said that he arranged several programmes with Purohit to attract young people and even took an oath to form a Hindu nation.
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Nashik’s Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai.
The accused in the case include Lok Sabha member Pragya Thakur, lieutenant colonel Prasad Purohit, Sudhakar Dwivedi, major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni, all of whom are out on bail.
The trial in the 2008 case is being conducted before NIA special judge PR Sitre and began on November 2, 2018. The prosecution has submitted a list of around 286 witnesses that include doctors, police officials, forensic experts and witnesses.
On October 30, 2018, the court framed charges against all the seven accused for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder. The accused face trial under sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
HT tried to reach out to Param Bir Singh for a comment but could not get one immediately.
