One more prosecution witness turns hostile in Malegaon blast case

MUMBAI: The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has declared another witness, a former Army officer, hostile in the September 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case.

The ex-officer, who was posted at the intelligence unit of the Army at Nasik between October 2005 and June 2008, was called as a prosecution witness number 108 in the ongoing trial. His statement was recorded by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which investigated the case initially, on December 22, 2008. In his statement to the ATS, the witness had claimed to have worked with Lt Col Prasad Purohit, an accused in the blasts case, for around a month in July and August 2007.

The witness on Saturday testified before the special court and said that he had resigned from military services in 2020 on account of personal reasons. He claimed that he had never given any statement to the ATS. Since he denied having given any statement to the ATS, he was declared hostile by the prosecution. Reportedly, in his statement to the ATS, the witness had claimed that while he was working with Purohit, one Sudhakar Chaturvedi used to regularly visit him and he knew Chaturvedi because of his regular visits to their office.

The witness in his statement also said that apart from Chaturvedi, another man had come to their office in September 2008 and on Purohit’s instructions the officer had provided him lunch, which they used to get from the mess.

As per the prosecution case, on September 29, 2008, a bomb planted on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon in Nashik district, killing six people and injuring 101 others. The case was initially probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and later taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In April 2011, the case was transferred to the NIA.

The ATS had booked 13 persons for the crime, including BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre, who allegedly procured the arms, Rakesh Dhawade, who is accused of helping assemble the bomb, Ajay Rahirkar, the treasurer of Abhinav Bharat, Samir Kulkarni, Shyam Sahu, who is accused of providing multiple SIM cards.