Malegaon 2008 Blast Case: Court Refuses To Blame SIMI, Raps ATS For Incomplete Probe | GPlus
The special court while acquitting all the seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Lt Col Purohit, refused to accept the defence claim that the blast was carried out by the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). However, it noted that the investigating agency should have looked into every angle.
In a detailed 1036-page judgment, special NIA Judge AK Lahoti said the state ATS that probed the blast case initially had failed to investigate the angle of SIMI’s involvement in the commission of the crime.
According to the accused persons, the explosion took place outside a building housing a SIMI office and that the ATS was aware of it.
The court noted that during the cross examination, then ATS officer Mohan Kulkarni, who was the investigating officer, admitted to the existence of a SIMI office in the vicinity of the blast.
Witness Account Ignored
Taking an adverse view of this, the judge said that the ATS officer was aware of the SIMI office, however, he did not probe whether it was operational or not at the time and whether its members were also present in the locality at the time of the blast. “Admittedly, they had not investigated from this angle to rule out the possibility that there was no involvement of SIMI,” the judge emphasised.
Court’s Critique
Moreover, one of the witnesses has testified that just before the explosion, a girl was seen standing near the motorcycle. The court said it was the investigating officer’s prerogative to decide the direction of the investigation, however, when certain facts come to the probe agency’s knowledge, then those angles must be looked into.
No Evidence Against SIMI
The defence advocates argued that SIMI activists may have been the conspirators of the blast.
The court refused to accept this argument and draw a conclusion in the absence of any investigation or evidence to show that SIMI activists were involved in the offence and had carried out the blast.
Initial Probe by ATS
The probe was initially carried out by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). It was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency.
