Another witness in the 2008 Malegaon Blast case was declared hostile on Saturday with which the total count of hostile witnesses now reached 28.
This 28th witness of the blast case– wherein six people were killed and over 100 others were injured after an explosive device placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra’s Malegaon city on September 29, 2008– was to depose about the roles of accused Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Sudhakar Chaturvedi. Still, in court, he instead said that he did not remember anything.
Hence, he was feared hostile by the prosecution. Previously, one of the witnesses of the 2008 Malegaon Blast Case turned hostile after he stated the same reason for not remembering anything.
The 27th witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case turned hostile on Thursday after he told the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court that he doesn’t remember the statement he had given to the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), the earlier investigating agency.
The witness had reportedly given a statement against the sitting Bhopal MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and another accused, identified as Dayanand Pandey, of this case during the initial investigation done by the Maharashtra ATS.
He told the special NIA court that he is of age 75 years and that is why it is difficult for him to remember what he had said in his statement.
Earlier also, the witnesses of the case had turned hostile during the special NIA court hearing. One of them, who worked at a hotel in Indore, refused to partially say in court what he had stated earlier to the investigating agency.
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 others were injured after an explosive device placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra’s Malegaon city. All the seven accused in the case are currently on bail.
The Maharashtra ATS made its first arrest in connection to the case by apprehending BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on October 23, 2008.
Later, others were also caught. The ATS, on January 20, 2009, filed a charge sheet in the case after completing its investigation.
In April 2011, the central government transferred the investigation into the case to the NIA.
