MUMBAI: Families of those killed in the September 2008 bomb blast in Malegaon have moved the Bombay high court, challenging the acquittal of all the seven accused, including former BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, a serving army officer.
Nearly 17 years after a bomb ripped through a crowded intersection in Malegaon on September 29, 2008, killing six people and injuring 95 others, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on July 31 had acquitted all seven accused in an order that highlighted serious irregularities, contradictions, and procedural misconduct by the investigating agencies.
“The trial court has unfortunately acted as a mere post-office and allowed a deficient prosecution to benefit the accused”, the victims have said in the appeal which is scheduled to be heard on September 15. The petitioners claimed the order passed by the special NIA court on July 31 acquitting the seven accused was wrong and “bad in law” and hence deserves to be quashed.
The case was investigated first by the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and then by the NIA from 2011. Apart from Thakur and Purohit, the special NIA court had also acquitted retired army officer Ramesh Shivaji Upadhyay, 73, Pune-based businessman Samir Sharad Kulkarni, 53, Purohit’s purported associates Ajay Eknath Rahirkar, 56, and Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi, 53, and Sudharkar Dhar Dwivedi, also known as Swami Amritananda Devtirth, 56, a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya.
In their plea, filed on Monday by six family members of the victims through their advocate Mateen Shaikh, the petitioners remarked that it was a complete legal and factual anomaly for the trial judge to return the finding that the prosecution failed to prove the case against the accused persons.
In their appeal, they alleged that the trial court disregarded important forensic and witness evidence, ignored the conspiracy angle, and gave undue weight to hostile witnesses. “Six precious lives were lost and this manner of rejection of evidence as well as non-production of important materials by the prosecution ought not to have been permitted by the trial court. The trial court is not supposed to act only as a post office but ensure eliciting of truth”, the petition states.
They also accused the NIA of “failing miserably” in protecting the witnesses and not filing any perjury cases against the witnesses who turned hostile. Citing alleged political interference in the case, the petitioners claimed that 13 crucial documents, which were key evidence against the accused, mysteriously disappeared from the court’s custody. “Shockingly neither the prosecution conducted any enquiry nor did the court order any investigation or registration of an FIR,” they said.
Further, the families highlighted that the previous NIA Advocate (Special Public Prosecutor) was abruptly sacked by the NIA for not obliging them, as she “openly revealed to the media about the pressure from the NIA Superintendent to not prosecute some of the accused and go soft against some individual facing the trial”. They stated that the NIA has conducted the trial in a dubious manner and has benefitted the accused by carrying out a “lackadaisical prosecution”.
In the acquittal judgment in July, the special court had said mere suspicion cannot replace real proof and there was no cogent or reliable evidence to warrant conviction. Special judge A K Lahoti, presiding over the NIA court, had said there was no “reliable and cogent evidence” against the accused that proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.
According to the ATS, the blast was the handiwork of a right-wing group led by Purohit, Upadhyay and Dwivedi. In its charge sheet, the agency claimed that Purohit, who at the time served in the Indian Army’s Military Intelligence unit, had in February 2007 formed Abhinav Bharat, an organisation with an intention to convert India into a Hindu rashtra named Aryavart. It also arrested Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in October 2008, alleging that the motorcycle belonged to her.
During the course of investigation, ATS arrested 11 people and on January 20, 2009 filed a charge sheet against them. Four of them were later discharged by the special court.