New Delhi/Mumbai. According to the big news of the afternoon, in the case related to the 2008 Malegaon blast case, now another witness has turned hostile before the special NIA court. Yes, today he told the court that he was kidnapped by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and also kept in illegal custody for three-four days. At the same time, today the witness also said that he was forced to take the names of RSS leaders in this case.
Malegaon blast case 2008 | Another witness turns in the case trial. This is the 17th hostile witness. He told the court that he was kidnapped by ATS and was kept in illegal custody for three-four days, and was forced to take names of RSS leaders in the case.
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2022
According to the information received, out of the 218 witnesses examined by the special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Malegaon bomb blast case, 17 have so far turned hostile. Today the ATS had initially conducted a probe into the matter, which was later handed over to the NIA for a thorough investigation.
Significantly, last week, the Maharashtra ATS officers present in the special court had left the room during the hearing of the case after the defense counsel raised objections. To this, the defense counsel argued that as per law, NIA can take help of other agencies during investigation, but not at all during trial.
At the same time, taking cognizance of the turn of various prosecution witnesses in this case, now Maharashtra Home Minister Valse Patil had said about two weeks ago that the ATS would also attend the hearing.
Let us inform that in this case other accused, BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur is also prominently involved. According to the incident, on September 29, 2008, six people were killed and more than 100 were injured in a blast near a mosque in Malegaon in northern Maharashtra, about 200 km from Mumbai.