Special Public Prosecutor Avinash Rasal, who was kept out of the loop by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) when the charge sheet was filed in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case in a Mumbai court, told The Hindu that he was “anguished” by the turn of events. He said the procedures (while filing the charge sheet) were not followed and he was “disturbed.”
Salian’s allegationMr. Rasal’s admission on Saturday assumes importance as earlier also the NIA’s Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian had alleged that she was pressured to water down the case where several right-wing leaders were involved. Two days ago, at the NIA’s request, Mr. Rasal had informed the court that they required time to file the charge sheet.
Mr. Rasal said there was no hurry to file the charge sheet but the investigating agency was asked by its “seniors” to file it on Friday as judge S.D Tekale of the Special NIA court in Mumbai was proceeding on leave for two weeks. The court will resume work on May 30.
When the NIA filed its final report, it dropped MCOCA charges against all 14 arrested persons and two more accused could never be arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad or the NIA.
It absolved six accused, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, of all charges. It said Sections of the UAPA and IPC were still valid against 10 accused persons.
When asked how the NIA benefited by hurriedly filing the charge sheet, Mr. Rasal said: “The accused were provided with the copies of the charge sheet without wastage of time. They have ample scope to study the report and prepare a defence now,” said Mr. Rasal on phone from Mumbai.
NIA Director-General Sharad Kumar told The Hindu on Friday that since the judge was to proceed on leave, they burnt the midnight oil to file the charge sheet.
Mr. Rasal said that though the Supreme Court had raised doubts about the applicability of the MCOCA in this case, with its enabling provisions, he got the bail applications of the accused rejected on 34 occasions.
‘Opposed release’“Every time the accused filed a bail application, I opposed their release taking advantage of the MCOCA provisions. Since the time I am associated with the case, the bail was rejected 34 times,” said Mr. Rasal.
Mr. Rasal replaced Ms. Rohini Salian in 2015. The charge sheet was filed by his junior Geeta Godambe when he was attending a hearing in another case.
Blames witnessesAsked if he was unhappy with the NIA’s charge sheet, he said, “Till now I have not examined it … proper procedures were not followed, this is what the anguish is about.”
He, however, refrained from blaming the NIA for “weakening the case.” “It is not the NIA but the witnesses who have weakened the case against the accused. The accused have said they were tortured by the Maharashtra ATS to give statements, there are several complaints pending with the State Human Rights Commission also” said Mr. Rasal.
