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‘ATS FORCED TO TAKE NAMES OF YOGI, RSS LEADERS IN MALEGAON CASE’

One more witness has turned hostile in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. This is the 15th witness to turn hostile in the case. The witness told Mumbai’s special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday that he was tortured by ATS, the then investigating agency of the case. The witness told the court that […]

One more witness has turned hostile in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. This is the 15th witness to turn hostile in the case. The witness told Mumbai’s special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday that he was tortured by ATS, the then investigating agency of the case. The witness told the court that he was kept in Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) office for seven days after the blast and after that, ATS threatened to torture and frame his family members. The witness told the court today that ATS forced him to falsely take the names of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and five RSS members.

Notably, former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, currently facing multiple cases of extortion, was posted as additional commissioner of the ATS, when it probed the Malegaon blast case. During his deposition, the witness told the court that the then senior ATS officer Param Bir Singh and another officer had threatened him to take the names of Yogi Adityanath, the present UP CM, and four other RSS leaders, including Indresh Kumar. He claimed the ATS tortured him and made him sit (in the ATS office) illegally. After his deposition, the court declared the witness hostile for making allegations against the ATS and denying that he made any statement before the anti-terror agency.

The case is currently being investigated by NIA. Earlier on 24 November, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur made an appearance in Mumbai’s Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) trial court in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Apart from Thakur, LT Col Purohit, Chaturvedi, and 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 Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153(a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC. Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on 29 September 2008.

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