NIA Projected 'Altogether New Story', Ignored Findings Of ATS & CBI: Bombay High Court While Discharging Four In 2006 Malegaon Blasts

In its order discharging four men from the 2006 Malegaon blast case, the Bombay High Court has pulled up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for not going by the investigations conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and for coming up with an 'altogether new story' with respect to the blasts.Notably, the ATS, which initially investigated the case had contended that the nine men, who were later discharged, had conspired and executed the blasts near the Hamidia Masjid on September 8, 2006 wherein around 37 people died and over 300 injured. The ATS claimed that the nine men were members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a banned organisation. The agency further claimed that some of the nine men received training in Pakistan, where they learnt making of bombs and after returning to India. The nine accused on instructions of some Pakistani nationals, prepared bombs and planted the same on a bicycle near the Masjid. The blast took place after the Friday prayers in the area. The said findings were affirmed by the CBI, which took over the investigations in February 2007. The CBI's supplementary chargesheet was in line with the initial chargesheet filed by the ATS.However, when the NIA was given the task to further probe the case in April 2011, the central agency once again recorded the statements of the nine accused and also of some of the 'protected witnesses' and all of them retracted from their earlier statements recorded under section 164 CrPC. The initial group of accused told the NIA that they were tortured and forced by ATS sleuths to give certain statements and to confess to the crime.Accordingly, on April 25, 2016, the special NIA court in Mumbai, which was seized with the case, discharged all the nine accused. It relied on the case of the NIA which pointed out that one Swami Aseemanand, a prime accused in the Makkah Masjid blast case, had confessed that the blasts which took place in Malegaon was a "handy work" of some right-wing men under one Sunil Joshi. On the basis of this testimony, the NIA investigated the case further and arrested the four accused - Rajendra Chaudhary, Lokesh Sharma, Dhan Singh and Manohar Ram Singh Narwaria, who the anti-terrorism agency claimed were the ones, who conspired to commit the terrorist act. The agency also showed Sunil Joshi as dead while co-accused Ramcharan Kalsangara was described as absconding, and Ramesh Mahalkar and Sandeep Dange were described as wanted accused persons.After recording the entire facts of the case, the division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Chandak expressed 'surprise' over the NIA coming up with an altogether new story which was 'diagonally' contradicting with the version of the ATS and the CBI."The NIA projected an altogether new story that the appellants and other accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit terrorists acts with an intention to strike terror in the minds of the people. They were given arms and bomb preparation training at Bagli (MP) under the supervision of Sunil Joshi, Ramchandra Gopal Singh Kalsangara and Lokesh Sharma. In the supplementary charge-sheet, the NIA narrated its story on how appellants along with the wanted accused persons made preparations, planning and procurement of materials and caused the bomb blasts. However, what is important to keep in mind is that the NIA created the prosecution story mainly on the basis of confession and spot discovery statements of the appellants. The new story propounded by the NIA is based on retraction of confessional statements made by the initially arrested group of accused and a protected witness," Chief Justice Chandrashekhar held in the order. Further the judges pointed out to certain conclusions of ATS and CBI on one hand and that of the NIA on the other. The bench pointed out how the ATS and CBI contended that one of the nine accused, was a planter of the bomb while the NIA claimed that he was at least 400 km away from the blast site on the relevant day. The judges held that the NIA's investigation and case was only based on some retracted statements of the initial group of accused and that the evidence against the four appellants was a 'hearsay' piece of evidence. "This new story of involvement of the appellants is based on the disclosure statements suffered by them. The materials collected by the NIA to show that the appellants purchased bicycles which were used in the crime are hearsay evidence. This was a fact known to the Investigating Agency that bicycles were purchased and used in the crime by the first set of accused persons who were sent up for trial by the ATS and CBI. The NIA has projected an entirely different story and states that the investigation of the case is still continuing and further evidence is being collected against the accused persons and requested the Special Court to permit it to continue further investigation of the...

NIA Projected 'Altogether New Story', Ignored Findings Of ATS & CBI: Bombay High Court While Discharging Four In 2006 Malegaon Blasts

Narsi Benwal

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