Special judge takes NIA to task for ‘suppression’ of documents on 2008 Malegaon blast case
Mumbai: A special judge of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) recently took the Agency to task for ‘suppressing’ documents relating to the Malegaon blast case of 2008 all these years.
The NIA was pulled up for not submitting an important forensic report in court for as long as 13 years, reports Hindustan Times. The matter of the analysis of the voice samples of the accused in 2008 case came to light when the forensic expert who had done the analysis was questioned in court.
A bomb planted in a motorbike had exploded in Malegaon late September 2008, killing six people and injuring more than 100. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had handled the case initially, but handed it over to the NIA in April 2011.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had recovered an audio recording a conspiracy meeting, and sent it for analysis to the forensic laboratory in Kalina, in 2009. The forensic expert, who was produced as witness in court recently, had prepared the analysis report while working at the laboratory. The analysis, which states that the voice samples matched those of Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey and Prasad Purohit, who are the accused in the Malegaon case, was not submitted in court by the ATS.
When the forensic expert was called to depose last month, he requested that the documents be taken on record for the investigation. He also claimed that he had readied the report in 2009, but left the job the next year. The papers had been in the Kalina laboratory since being prepared but he had received the documents only now, the expert said.
The witness’ plea was supported by the NIA but opposed by the defence lawyers.
The special court said, “The application moved by the witness does not suggest who was the custodian of those documents since 2010, when the witness left the job, or from whose custody those documents are brought, the mode and manner of receipt of those documents, why those documents are filed at belated stage, what prevented him to hand over those documents to the investigating officer. All these questions are unanswered in the application and no explanation came on these points.”
The judge added that the witness had said that he had collected the documents from the laboratory recently. “Collecting those documents and filing it on record after a lapse of a number of years without any explanation/clarification, gives rise to inference that those documents were suppressed,” the special judge observed.
The court also negated the contention of the prosecution that the documents that refer to the voice samples and the methodology of the expert were a part of the report. “If it would have been part and parcel of the report, then it would have been handed over to the investigating machinery during investigation. But, in fact, it was neither filed along with the chargesheet nor as per section 173(8) of CrPC (final report),” the court observed, refusing to take these documents of analysis on record.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Brothers awaiting board exam results drown in canal
Erode (Tamil Nadu) (PTI): Minor brothers who were awaiting their board exam results have drowned in a canal in this district while spending their Summer holidays at their aunt's place, police said.
According to Arachalure Police, Santhosh, aged 17, and his younger brother Sanjai, aged 15, natives of Musiri village in Tiruchirapalli district, came to Gopaliparai hamlet near Arachalure to their Aunt's house a couple of days ago after writing their annual 12th and 10th examinations, respectively.
The police said on Friday that both boys went to the nearby Lower Bhavani Project canal to take a bath. It was alleged that while taking a bath, both boys went to a deeper area of the canal and went missing.
As they didn't return home, even two hours after they left, their aunt grew suspicious and informed the Fire and Rescue Services, Chennimalai. A rescue team from the department rushed to the spot. After a few minutes of searching, they located the dead bodies of the brothers and sent them to the hospital. Arachalure police registered a case of death due to drowning and are investigating.
