MUMBAI: The 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case took a new turn as another witness turned hostile and told a Mumbai Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday that he had to falsely implicate Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the five others. He was harassed by ATS for naming RSS members.
The witness, who is the 15th turned witness in the case, told the court that he was kept in the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) office for seven days after the blast and after that, the ATS tried to torture and torture his family members. Threatened to implicate them.
The witness reportedly told the special NIA court that he was tortured by the then investigating agency of the case, ATS. He also told the court that the ATS forced him to take the wrong names of Yogi Adityanath and 5 others from the RSS.
Earlier on November 24, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur had appeared in the trial court of Mumbai’s Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Besides Thakur, LT Col Purohit, Chaturvedi, Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi are also accused in the case.
They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The charges include UAPA sections 16 (committing acts of terrorism) and 18 (conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing ) Are included. injury) and 153(a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.
After the statement of a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case that he was threatened with names of BJP and RSS leaders, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar demanded an apology from Congress leaders – former prime minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Home Minister P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid – for character assassination of BJP and RSS leaders.
Indresh Kumar demands apology from Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi
Kumar’s reaction comes after a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case turned hostile and testified in a Mumbai court that then-senior ATS officer Param Bir Singh and another officer had threatened him to name Yogi Adityanath. Currently Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, and four other RSS leaders including Indresh Kumar. Singh, who is facing extortion and other cases, was suspended this month.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader was quoted as saying, “It (the witness’s statement) has proved that all the cases of saffron terror (reported) of that time were created by the Congress as part of its dirty politics. There was a conspiracy.” In an audio message to PTI.
“Manmohan Singh (former prime minister), (Congress leader) Sonia Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Salman (Khurshid), Digvijay Singh – all of them should apologize for committing such a big sin and crime.” He allegedly demanded
The RSS leader criticized other political parties and their leaders, “who are now sitting in the opposition”, saying that they too have committed “a great sin and a crime” as they are using the “dirty politics and conspiracy” of the Congress and its coalition government. stood with. For falsely implicating BJP and RSS leaders in so-called saffron terror cases.
Kumar appealed to the people to “democratically” teach a lesson to all those parties and leaders who were involved in “creation of saffron terror” or supported “such inhuman politics”, adding that “it is the culmination of their shamelessness that They have not even apologized for hatching such a political conspiracy with the intention of committing atrocities (on BJP and RSS leaders).”
So far 220 witnesses have been examined in this case and 15 of them have turned hostile. On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device attached to a motorcycle exploded near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in northern Maharashtra.