Rohini Salian, who appeared as special public prosecutor in the Malegaon blast case, has alleged that the National Investigation Agency told her to go soft in the case after the Modi government took over at the Centre.
“An NIA officer approached me immediately after the change of government and told me in person to go soft. On June 12, he approached me for the second time, and said I would no longer be appearing in the case,” Ms. Salian told presspersons at the sessions court here following an interview with a newspaper. She did not name the officer.
The Malegaon blast case of 2008 was the first in which the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra charge-sheeted alleged Hindu extremists, including Lt.Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur.
Ms. Salian said that after the agency took over the case from the squad in 2011, three more accused were arrested in addition to the 12 previously. “But all three got bail by default because the NIA did not file a charge sheet against them,” she said.
Ms. Salian said that after she was asked not to appear for the NIA, she verbally communicated to the agency to de-notify her appointment. However, she had not sent a formal request.
“They are [targeting] me for favourable orders. There has been no unfavourable order in the case,” she said.
Of the 12 charge-sheeted accused, Shyam Sahu, Jagdish Mhatre, Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra and Ajay Rahirkar have been granted bail. The bail pleas of the rest of the accused have been rejected.
“Shocking”Majeed Memon, criminal lawyer and Nationalist Congress Party leader, said Ms. Salian’s “shocking exposure reveals what happens behind the curtain.”
Defence lawyers of the accused in the Malegaon case criticised Ms. Salian’s statements. “It is unfortunate that when the bail applications filed by the accused are ready for hearing, the public prosecutor has given such statements to sensationalise the case. The ATS officers have fabricated evidence in this case,” said Shrikant Shivade, who represented Purohit and Shankaracharya Sudhakar Dwivedi, alias Dayanand Pandey.
