Mumbai (PTI): A special court here in its judgment, acquitting seven persons in the September 2008 Malegaon blast case, rejected the claims made by a former Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) official that he had been ordered to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the case.

Special NIA Judge A K Lahoti, in his over 1000-page judgment, said it did not find any force in the contentions raised by the advocate for accused Sudhakar Dwivedi, who had relied on the claims made by Mehboob Mujawar, a former ATS officer.

The observations fell flat on the face of Mujawar, who had reiterated on Thursday that he had been asked to apprehend Bhagwat and the objective behind the same was to establish that there was "saffron terror".

Mujawar had at the time also claimed that senior ATS officers had ordered him to arrest Bhagwat, but he had refused to obey such illegal orders as he did not find any role of Bhagwat in the alleged offence.

The court, in its order, rejected the defence lawyer's contention based on a statement made by ACP Mohan Kulkarni, the then chief investigating officer, that Mujawar was never asked to arrest any member of RSS and was only sent out to trace the two absconding accused, Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange.

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Vijayanagara: One man was killed and 12 others were injured after a truck hit vehicle they were traveling in on the National Highway 50 stretch on the outskirts of Koodligi in the district.

The accident victim, Madhu (27), is learned to have been an employee of Reliance Digital from Andhra Pradesh.

The vehicle was reportedly traveling from Bengaluru to Koodligi and the passengers are learned to have been seriously injured following the collision with the truck, which was found to have a Maharashtra registration.

Koodligi Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Mallesh Dodmani and Circle Inspector Prahlad Channagiri arrived at the accident spot on being informed of the accident.

The police officers and locals rescued the injured passengers and got them shifted to the Koodligi Government Hospital. Some of the passengers were reportedly taken to the Ballari Trauma Care Centre for further treatment.

A case has been registered at the Koodligi Police Station and the officers are investigating the incident.