After documents related to the Malegaon blast case went missing, special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal said that it would not hamper the court trial at all. There are some other sources from where the court can ask for copies of the papers, he said adding that the documents could be found if searched properly.
Two days ago it was reported that documents related to the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, in which seven statements of witnesses recorded in the presence of a magistrate and admissible as evidence, went missing from the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court. Public prosecutor Rohini Salian stated in Parliament that she had given the documents to special public prosecutor Rasal in front of the NIA officials. After the disappearance of the documents, questions were raised on the future of the trial of the blast case.
Commenting on the matter, advocate Rasal said, “There are other sources from which court can ask for copies of the papers and the trial will not be affected due to this incident. Also, I’m sure that if looked for properly, the papers will be found.
According to sources, the court distributes copies of the statements of the witnesses to the prosecutor, the defence lawyer and the DCP. So if the court needed the statements then anyone of them can submit their copy of the document. The copy submitted by the DCP, however, is more relevant for the court in any trial.
Some other advocates said that documents’ going missing from court is not a unusual thing. Even in the Salman Khan hit-and-run case, a few documents went missing but after a few days the officials found them.
According to sources, officials of NIA have already started looking for the missing papers.
In the blast, 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, which investigated the case before was handed over to NIA in 2011, arrested a dozen-odd accused, including self-styled Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and serving Indian Army officer lieutenant colonel Srikant Purohit. Both worked for the Hindu radical group Abhinav Bharat.
