2008 Malegaon Blast Case: Another witness presented before court, next hearing on Dec 19

In the 2008 Malegaon blast case hearing on Tuesday accused Colonel Prasad Purohit and Sameer Kulkarni were presented before the court. After the cross-examination of the previous eye-witness on Friday, another witness was produced before the court. However, on Tuesday, the eye witness was not questioned by any of the advocates. Out of 400, 142 witnesses have appeared before the court now.

As per the affidavit filed, the witness was to give details about Shankaracharya - another accused in the case - and also elaborate on the articles seized from him, including the laptops and mobile phones amongst other things. Swami Amrutanand Devte alias Shankaracharya has alleged on several occasions before that he has been framed. The next hearing has been slated for December 19. 

Meanwhile, Col Prasad Purohit, who was present in the court today, was arrested by the ATS in November 2008 with allegations of floating funds in the case. The NIA has claimed in its chargesheet that the investigating agency had intercepted conversations between him and accused Ramesh Upadhyay, which allegedly showed “post conduct” guilt and active participation in the crime. On the other hand, Sameer Kulkarni was arrested in October 2008 on allegations of his involvement in the meeting where the formation of 'Hindu Rashtra' was discussed. The NIA claims to be in possession of evidence to show his active participation in the crime. 

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In the previous hearing on Friday, accused Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar and Prasad Purohit were presented before the special NIA court. The panch witness was also present to make his deposition before the court. The panch witness was cross-examined by the lawyers of accused BJP MP Pragya Thakur, Kulkarni, and Rahikar as well. While the witness identified Rahikar as an accused in the case, he also recognized two mobile phones that were seized by officials belonging to Rahirkar. When questioned, the witness claimed that Rahikar did not have any marks on his body which is in contradiction of Rahikar's statements claiming that he had been tortured in police custody. 

READ | 2008 Malegaon Blast Case: Special NIA Court To Conduct Day-to-day Hearing From Dec 4

The Malegaon blast case

On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 others were injured after a bomb strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra. While the court framed charges against the accused in October 2018, the delay in the trial has been attributed to the novel coronavirus situation and the retirement of previous judge VS Padalkar. So far, only 140 of the 400 prosecution witnesses have been examined.

READ | Malegaon Blast: Panch Witness Claims He Doesn't Remember Facts From Blast Site

The terror charges against Lt. Col. Purohit, Pragya Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahikar, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi entail Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They have also been charged under Sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Explosive Substances Act. In the scenario of their conviction, they face the possibility of being sentenced to life imprisonment or death. 

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