Photocopies as proof: HC stays 2017 order

MUMBAI:THE Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday stayed a 2017 order passed by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court permitting the use of photocopied statements of witnesses and confessions of accused as secondary evidence in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

The bench of justices A S Oka and A S Gadkari was hearing an appeal filed by Sameer Kulkarni, a co-accused in the case, challenging the 2017 order. The high court will hear NIA’S objections to the appeal on March 4, said NIA counsel Sandesh Patil.

“We had told you [NIA] on two previous occasions that you should have withdrawn your application [seeking permission to use photocopies as evidence] and instead made a fresh application before the special court bringing to its notice your mistake and clarifying that you had not ascertained whether the said photocopies were copies of certified original records,” the bench said.

At the previous hearing, the bench led by Justice Oka had observed that the special court should not have allowed the use of photocopies as there was no evidence to prove that photocopies documents were authentic copies of the original, certified statements.

In January 2017, the special NIA court had permitted the use of photocopies of 15 documents, after the agency said the original documents were missing and could not be traced. On September 29, 2008, an explosion at Bhikku Chowk, Malegaon in Nashik killed six people and injured 101 others.