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Malegaon blast: Prosecution to lead with secondary evidence
Two low-intensity explosions in Malegaon’s Bhikku Chowk on September 29, 2008, had left seven people dead and over 80 injured.
Mumbai: A special NIA court on Monday allowed the application of the prosecution in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case to lead with the secondary evidence because certain documents, including statements of some witnesses and confessional statements of some accused, were untraceable.
“Yes, the court has allowed our application to lead with secondary evidence,” said special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal. He also said, “Statements of some prosecution witnesses and confessions of two accused recorded under section 161 and section 164 of the CrPC were missing and were untraceable and hence we had made an application before the court well in advance seeking permission to lead with secondary evidence.”
According to advocate Rasal, though the accused had opposed this application, special judge Shripad Tekale has allowed it.
The permission given by the court to the prosecution means that the latter would use copies of documents from the court and the defence to lead with the evidence. Mr Rasal said that the same copies of documents were provided to everybody, so it does not make any difference if the prosecution uses copies provided to them.
Sometime ago, the prosecution had brought to the court’s notice that some documents, pertaining to the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, have gone missing.
The NIA had formed three teams to find these statements and some court officials had also joined the search, but to no avail. The prosecution decided to rely on secondary evidence because all the missing statements were recorded before magistrates and copies of these were available with other parties of the case.
Two low-intensity explosions in Malegaon’s Bhikku Chowk on September 29, 2008, had left seven people dead and over 80 injured.
The Maharashtra police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad investigated the case before it was handed over to the NIA in 2011, arrested a dozen accused, including sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, and serving Indian Army officer Lt Col Srikant Purohit. Both were a part of the Hindu radical group, Abhinav Bharat.
