In the eye of a storm for “weakening terror cases” involving extreme right wing groups, Sharad Kumar, Director-General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), said in an interview to The Hindu that the agency was handed over the cases after a delay of three or four years, and the memory of most witnesses had weakened over time.
The extreme right-wing groups, including Abhinav Bharat, have allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP).
Mr. Kumar, a 1979-batch IPS officer of the Haryana cadre, was appointed by the UPA government in 2013. He was given a one-year extension in October 2015 after he reached superannuation. The Congress has demanded his removal.
Mr. Kumar said the agency had “no control over the memory of witnesses” who were turning hostile in hordes, and most of them were either close friends or relatives of the accused.
He said: “The cases were handed over to the NIA after three to four years, when other investigating agencies like the CBI and the Maharashtra ATS had already done their investigations. The cases were already under trial. By the time we took over, most of the evidence had been collected and there was not much scope. The memory of witnesses has weakened over time.”
Asked why key material witnesses were turning hostile in all these cases, Mr. Kumar said: “The NIA has no role to play as far as deposition of witnesses is concerned; it is between the court and the witness. In the Mecca Masjid blast of 2007, in which some members of the same group are involved, none of the 70 witnesses have turned hostile.”
He said most of the witnesses complained that they had been coerced to give statements by the investigating agencies.
Asked whether action would be taken against the errant officials, Mr. Kumar said: “It is premature to come to that conclusion.”
A few days ago, Mr. Kumar was in the U.S. to request for information on Arif Qasmani, a key Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) financier in the 2006 Samjhauta Express blast case. The move was an indication that the government was looking to shift the focus of the investigation away from the current suspects towards the Pakistan-based LeT.
Mr. Kumar said: “I had gone to do a follow-up on 18-19 letter rogatories sent to the U.S. on the probe into various terror cases. Qasmani[’case] was one of them. This was done to make our case fool-proof. The defence might use it to create doubts in the mind of the court.
This will strengthen the prosecution’s case.” Asked whether the NIA was going the CBI way in handling cases according to the government of the day, Mr. Kumar said: “We have a 92 per cent success rate in resolving the cases. The figures itself vouch for our professionalism.”
