Greeva Garg –
Published on: August 29, 2021, at 11:07 IST
A Special Court dealing with the cases of National Investigation Agency (NIA) declared a second key Witness hostile in 2008 Malegaon Blast Case.
The Court gave its declaration after the witness denied the statement, earlier recorded by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
ATS was in-charge agency for the probe before it was handed over to National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Earlier Witness stated that, after the blast in Malegaon on September 29, 2008, he attended an adventure camp at Panchgani in Satara District, Maharashtra.
According to the Witness’ statement, the accused in Malegaon Blast Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit delivered a lecture on spread of terrorism in India along with Pakistan’s strategy for weakening Indian system.
But in recent trial, witness refused to accept all his past statements.
So far, 188 witnesses has been recorded and examined in the proceedings.
Other than Purohit, Bhopal BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retd), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni are accused in this blast case and are on Bail.
Accused are facing trials under provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).