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Tag: Malegaon blast case

  • Malegaon blast case: Army officer having family relationship with Lt Col Purohit turns hostile

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: An Army officer having a family relationship with Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, became the 25th witness to turn hostile during the trial here on Thursday.

    Six persons were killed and 90 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a north Maharashtra town, on September 29, 2008.

    The Army officer recorded his testimony before Special Judge A K Lahoti on Thursday and recognized Purohit, who was present in the court.

    He further testified that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had made inquiries with him in connection with the case, but had never recorded his statement, after which the court declared him hostile.

    A witness presented by the probe agency is declared hostile when he or she does not support the prosecution’s case in the court.

    As per the record, the ATS had recorded his three-page statement, where he had claimed he had seen documents related to Abhinav Bharat outfit at Purohit’s house.

    In the statement, the Army officer had also claimed to have dropped Purohit and another former Army officer at the site of the camp held for Abhinav Bharat in October 2008 in Panchgani.

    Apart from Purohit, the other accused in the case include BJP Lok Sabha MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Shudakar Diwedi, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (Retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni, all of whom are out on bail.

    MUMBAI: An Army officer having a family relationship with Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, became the 25th witness to turn hostile during the trial here on Thursday.

    Six persons were killed and 90 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a north Maharashtra town, on September 29, 2008.

    The Army officer recorded his testimony before Special Judge A K Lahoti on Thursday and recognized Purohit, who was present in the court.

    He further testified that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had made inquiries with him in connection with the case, but had never recorded his statement, after which the court declared him hostile.

    A witness presented by the probe agency is declared hostile when he or she does not support the prosecution’s case in the court.

    As per the record, the ATS had recorded his three-page statement, where he had claimed he had seen documents related to Abhinav Bharat outfit at Purohit’s house.

    In the statement, the Army officer had also claimed to have dropped Purohit and another former Army officer at the site of the camp held for Abhinav Bharat in October 2008 in Panchgani.

    Apart from Purohit, the other accused in the case include BJP Lok Sabha MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Shudakar Diwedi, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (Retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni, all of whom are out on bail.

  • Malegaon blast: Another witness turns hostile, says ATS forced him to name RSS leaders

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Another witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case told the trial court here on Thursday that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) tortured and forced him to name RSS leaders during the probe.

    As the witness denied having given a voluntary statement to the ATS, Judge P R Sitre of the special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases declared him hostile.

    Of 222 prosecution witnesses examined in the case so far, 17 have turned hostile (refused to support the prosecution case).

    The witness told the court on Thursday that the ATS, which had probed the case initially, took him in custody multiple times and he was tortured.

    ATS officials forced him to name the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its leaders, he alleged.

    He was not an RSS member, nor did he know the name of any RSS functionary, the witness said.

    Earlier, another prosecution witness had told the court that the ATS forced him to name Yogi Adityanath (now Uttar Pradesh chief minister) and four RSS leaders.

    On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in north Maharashtra’s Nashik district.

    The accused in the case include BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sudhakar Diwedi, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.

    All of them are out on bail.

  • Pragya Thakur terms man who shot her kabaddi video as ‘Ravana’ 

    By PTI

    BHOPAL: After a viral video showed her playing kabaddi, Bhopal’s BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, who was confined to a wheelchair for a long time and had obtained bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case on medical grounds, described the one who shot and circulated the clip as “Ravana” and said his old age and next birth will get spoiled.

    Thakur was speaking during a Dussehra programme in Bhopal’s Sant Nagar (Bairagarh), a Sindhi community-dominated area, on Friday night.

    “I went for offering aarti (at a Durga pandal) two days back, when some sportsmen playing on a ground requested me to conduct a (kabaddi) raid. A small clip of this was captured and shown in the media,” she said.

    “If someone fretted and fumed, it was Ravana among you, some Sindhi brother… someone who is a big enemy (of mine). I am not his enemy, but he considered me as his enemy. I don’t know what precious thing I snatched from him… But Ravana can be anywhere,” she added.

    “I am telling the person, whose sanskaras have got spoiled, to mend them. If you don’t, your old age and next birth will also get spoiled because whenever anyone has clashed with the patriots, revolutionaries and above all saints, neither Ravana or Kansa survived, nor will the ‘adharmi’ or ‘vidharmi’ of the present be saved,” she said.

    She said that her ‘tapasya’ (penance) and meditation was for public.

    READ HERE | Pragya Thakur, out on bail on health grounds, seen playing kabaddi in latest video 

    The video that went viral on social media showed Thakur playing a game of kabaddi on the premises of a Kali temple.

    Earlier, another video of her taking part in a Garba dance during the just-concluded Navratri festival had emerged.

    Defending the Bhopal MP, her elder sister Upma Thakur had earlier said that she suffers from a spine problem, which can give trouble to her any time.

    “You never know at which moment it can create problems for her. There is a problem with her L4 and L5 bones (vertebrae) as they got dislocated because ATS Maharashtra (investigators) threw her on the floor.

    “Whenever these problems occur, the lower portion (of her body) is left with no sensation…. It can happen even when she sits or gets down from a vehicle,” Upma had said.

    On the other, MP Congress leaders, while taking a swipe at Pragya Thakur accused her of having many faces as sometimes she is seen in a wheelchair, sometime she plays Garba and kabaddi too.

  • Pragya Thakur, out on bail on health grounds, seen playing kabaddi in latest video 

    By PTI

    BHOPAL: BJP leader and Bhopal MP Pragya Thakur, who was confined to a wheelchair for a long time and had obtained bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case on medical grounds, is purportedly seen playing kabaddi in a viral video.

    Earlier, a video of her taking part in a Garba dance during the ongoing Navratri festival had also emerged.

    But her sister said her spine problem can give her trouble any time.

    A video which went viral on social media showed Thakur playing a game of kabaddi on the premises of a Kali temple on Wednesday.

    Another video had shown her dancing at a Garba program at the same venue during the ongoing Navratri, while an earlier clip had shown her shooting hoops on a basketball court.

    Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Narendra Singh Saluja posted the latest videos on Twitter.

    “It is a matter of happiness to see you healthy. Today you were seen playing Garba. But whenever people are in distress and they are calling you, you are seen sick, on a wheelchair or walking with support. It really hurts. God should always keep you healthy,” he tweeted.

    Defending the Bhopal MP, her elder sister Upma Thakur told PTI over phone that she suffers from a spine problem.

    “You never know at which moment it can create problems for her. There is a problem with her L4 and L5 bones (vertebrae) as they got dislocated because ATS Maharashtra (investigators) threw her on the floor.

    “Whenever these problems occur, the lower portion (of her body) is left with no sensation….It can happen even when she sits or gets down from a vehicle,” Upma said.

    MP Congress media department’s vice president Bhupendra Gupta said, “There are different faces of Bhopal MP.

    Sometimes she is seen in a wheelchair, sometime she plays Garba and kabaddi too.

    She has many faces.

    “Her past claims of defeating coronavirus with cow urine are worth publishing in international journals, he said in another jibe.

    “People of Madhya Pradesh want to know which is her right face — one playing garba or kabaddi or that of a wheelchair-bound person?” he asked.

    The 51-year-old BJP MP is out on bail in the Malegaon blast case on health grounds and had sought exemption from personal appearance in the trial court citing her physical condition.

    She was in prison for almost nine years and was granted bail in 2017.

    The case against her relates to bomb blasts at Malegaon in Maharashtra on September 29, 2008, in which at least six persons died.

    The case was probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took it over.

  • Malegaon blast case: Bombay High Court asks Prasad Shrikant Purohit about conspiracy meet

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked 2008 Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit if he had any documents to show he attended alleged conspiracy meetings for the blast as part of his official duty for the Army.

    A bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale asked Purohit about a meeting that he had attended on January 26, 2008.

    As per the National Investigation Agency (NIA), this meeting was organised by a group called Abhinav Bharat and the conspiracy for the blast was hatched here.

    Six people were killed and over 100 injured in the blast that took place near a mosque in Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

    “The meeting that you attended on 26, where is the reference? Where is the reference that it was part of the official duty?” the bench asked.

    The bench had asked a similar question to Purohit on the last hearing on February 3 too.

    The court was hearing a plea filed by Purohit in HC last year seeking dropping of all charges against him.

    He has maintained before HC that in attending the conspiracy meetings for the blast, he was discharging his duties, collecting intelligence for the Army.

    His counsels Neela Gokhale and Shrikant Shivade have argued in all past hearings that by meeting other accused persons and participating in conspiracy meetings, Purohit had merely been collecting information and passing it on to the Army.

    In his plea, Purohit has said, since he was working for the Army, the NIA should have obtained a prior sanction before prosecuting him.

    On Tuesday, the HC suggested Purohit seek recourse before the trial court.

    Shivade, however, argued that if at the end of the trial in the blast case, the lower court was to hold that his prosecution had indeed been without sanction, then why must he go through the trial at all.

    Shivade also sought the court’s permission to bring Purohit before the HC bench.

    The bench said it could agree to the request if Purohit “maintained decorum”.

    HC will continue hearing the arguments in the case on February 24.

  • Malegaon blast case: Special NIA Court adjourns hearing, Pragya Thakur seeks exemption from daily appearance

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: The Special NIA Court in Mumbai adjourned for Tuesday, the hearing in 2008 Malegaon blast case. BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur has sought an exemption from daily appearance in court on the grounds of health and security.

    The court has asked Thakur to file an application, and be present in court whenever asked.

    Thakur appeared before Special NIA Court earlier on Monday, in connection with 2008 Malegaon blast case. The Court had ordered all accused to be present before it today.

    Speaking to the reporters, Tahkur said, “I appeared in the court today and they told me that I will be called whenever required. I agreed to that.”

    On being asked the reason behind not appearing before the court regularly, Thakur said, “Last time when the court had called me, I was hospitalised and I am still undergoing treatment.”

    Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.