HC questions validity of NIA charge sheet

THE JUDGES SOUGHT TO KNOW HOW THERE COULD BE TWO CHARGE SHEETS, EACH NAMING DIFFERENT SETS OF ACCUSED IN ONE CASE

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday questioned the validity of the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) decision to drop charges against 14 Muslims (nine arrested and five wanted) booked in connection with the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case, and book four purported Hindu extremists instead.

“How can you name these four persons when two competent agencies (Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad and Central Bureau of Investigation) have not said anything about them in their charge sheets,” a division bench of justice Naresh Patil and justice NW Sambre asked NIA. It was hearing a petition filed by the ATS challenging the NIA special court’s April decision to discharge all the accused booked by ATS and bail pleas of the four arrested by the NIA.

The comment came after a lawyer of one of the accused arrested by NIA pointed out that the ATS had conducted a detailed investigation, arrested nine persons, recorded some of their confessions, and filed the charge sheet. Subsequently, the CBI had taken over the probe and confirmed the findings. Besides, the Supreme Court upheld the application of stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case. Despite all this, the NIA filed its own charge sheet, recording completely different conclusions.

Against this backdrop, the judges sought to know how there could be two different charge sheets, each naming different sets of accused in one case, and said they may have to examine the validity of the NIA charge sheet.

NIA defended itself, saying its findings were based on evidence gathered during its probe, where it concluded that the blasts were carried out by a Hindu group. It also cited the statement of RSS member Swami Aseemanand, an accused in the Mecca Masjid blast, where he said in 2010 that “the 2006 Malegaon blast was the handiwork of late RSS Pracharak Sunil Joshi’s boys”.