ATS forced me to falsely name Yogi Adityanath, 5 other RSS people: Malegaon bomb blast witness tells NIA court

The Malegaon bomb blasts witness told the NIA court that he was kept in Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) office for seven days after the blast and after that, ATS threatened to torture and frame his family members.

Mumbai: The 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case took a new twist as one more witness turned hostile and told Mumbai`s special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday that he was tortured by ATS to falsely take Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and five RSS members` names. Currently, the case is being investigated by NIA. 

The witness, who is the 15th witness to turn hostile in the case, told the court that he was kept in Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) office for seven days after the blast and after that, ATS threatened to torture and frame his family members, an ANI report said. 

The witness reportedly told Special NIA court that he was tortured by ATS, the then probe agency of the case. He also told the court that ATS forced him to falsely name Yogi Adityanath and 4 other people from RSS.

Earlier on November 24, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur made an appearance in Mumbai`s Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) trial court in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case. 

Apart from Thakur, LT Col Purohit, Chaturvedi, and Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi are also accused in the case. 

They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act, and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The charges include Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and 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 IPC.

Indresh Kumar demands apology from Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi

After a witness in the 2008 Malegoan blast case deposed that he had been threatened to take the names of BJP and RSS leaders, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar demanded an apology from Congress leaders - former prime minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Home Minister P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid - for assassinating the character of BJP and RSS leaders.

Kumar's reaction came after a witness in the 2008 Malegoan blast case turned hostile and deposed in a court in Mumbai earlier in the day that the then senior ATS officer Param Bir Singh and another officer had threatened him to take the names of Yogi Adityanath, who is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at present, and four other RSS leaders, including Indresh Kumar. Singh, who is facing extortion and other cases, was suspended this month.

" It (deposition of the witness) has proved that all the cases of saffron terror (lodged) at that time were a conspiracy hatched by the Congress as part of its dirty politics," the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader is quoted as saying in an audio message to the PTI.

"Manmohan Singh (former Prime Minister), (Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Salman (Khurshid), Digvijay Singh--all of them should apologise for committing such a big sin and a crime," he reportedly demanded.

The RSS leader also slammed the other political parties and their leaders, "who are now sitting in Opposition", saying they had also committed "a big sin and a crime" as they stood by the Congress and its coalition government's "dirty politics and conspiracy to falsely implicate the BJP and the RSS leaders" in the so-called saffron terror cases.

Kumar appealed to the people to "democratically" teach a lesson to all those parties and leaders who were involved "in the creation of saffron terror" or supported "such an inhuman politics", adding "It is the height of their shamelessness that they have not yet even apologised for hatching such a political conspiracy intended to commit atrocities (on the BJP and RSS leaders)."

As many as 220 witnesses have been examined in the case till now and 15 of them have turned hostile. 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. 

(With Agency Inputs)