Malegaon Blast: 17th Witness Turns Hostile, Claims ATS Forced Him To Take RSS Leaders’ Names
As many as 220 witnesses have been examined in the case till now and 17 of them have turned hostile.
New Delhi: Another witness in the 2008 Malegoan blast case has turned hostile and claimed in a court that he was forced to take names of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders in the case.
The witness told the court that he was kidnapped by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and kept in illegal custody for three-four days, ANI reported.
As many as 220 witnesses have been examined in the case till now and 17 of them have turned hostile.
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.
Earlier last month, RSS leader Indresh Kumar had demanded an apology from the Congress leaders after a witness in the Malegoan blast case claimed in a court that the ATS had threatened him to take the names of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and four other RSS leaders.
Earlier on September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 others injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Nashik's Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai.
The accused in the case include Lok Sabha member Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Shudakar Diwedi, Major (Retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni, all of whom are out on bail.
They are facing trial under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code.
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