Malegaon blast case: Witness identifies accused Ajay Rahikar, court adjourned till Dec 15

With the day-to-day hearing in the 2008 Malegoan blast case currently underway, accused Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar and Prasad Purohit were presented before the special NIA court on Friday. 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. The next date of hearing has been scheduled for December 15.  Out of 400, till now 140 witnesses have been called already. 

Previously, on December 7, Sameer Kulkarni - who is representing himself - had argued that the witness could not remember the number of places that he had signed in the statement, neither, could the witness recall an article of evidence that was apparently wrapped in a green cover.

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"The witnesses also seemed to have forgotten almost everything. His statements were recorded in July, now during the cross-examination, he didn't recall anything. I took his cross as well and he gave ambiguous answers and skirted questions. The panchnama was in Marathi and now today he claimed that he doesn't understand the language when he was asked about his prior statements," Kulkarni had told Republic Media Network. All accused including Thakur, col Purohit, Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni will have to be present on December 19, 2020.

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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.

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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.