2008 blasts: HC probes verity of proof copies

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday asked the National Investigating Agency (NIA) how the latter and the trial court verified the authenticity of the photocopies of some documentary evidence relied upon in the 2008 Malegaon blasts’ case.

A bench of Justices A.S. Oka and A.S. Gadkari was hearing a bunch of appeals filed by Sameer Kulkarni, one of the accused in the case. Mr Kulkarni has challenged the decision of the special NIA court permitting the probe agency to bring photocopies of mi-ssing statements of witnesses and confessions of the accused on reco-rd, and lead evidence in its support. He stated that there was no evidence to prove that the photocopied documents were authentic copies of the original statements.

In January 2017, the special NIA court permitted the use of photocopies after the NIA submitted that some files containing original witness statements and confessions of the accused under the Criminal Procedure Code section 164 could not be traced.

The bench also asked, “How do you (NIA) or the special court know that these are copies of the original statements? How did you verify that?” The court asked the NIA to inform about it on Wednesday.