In a sensational twist in the Malegaon blast case, a witness has told the Special NIA court that he was coerced to falsely implicate Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was then a BJP MP, as an accused in the case.
2008 Malegaon blast case | A witness tells Special NIA court that he was tortured by ATS, the then probe agency of the case. He also told the court that ATS forced him to falsely name Yogi Adityanath and 4 other people from RSS.
— ANI (@ANI) December 28, 2021
The witness told the Special NIA court that he was threatened, tortured and kept in illegal custody by the Mumbai ATS and forced to take the names of five Rashtriya Swayamseval Sangh (RSS) members including Yogi Adityanath, Indresh Kumar, Deodhar and Kakaji.
He told the court that after the blast he was kept confined in the Mumbai ATS office for 7 days and after that, the ATS threatened to torture and implicate his family members if he did not name the then BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.
When an accused also made similar allegations against Mumbai ATS
It may be recalled that in 2017 also, one of the blast accused named Sudhakar Chaturvedi, had also made similar claims that the Mumbai Anti-terror squad (ATS) had falsely implicated innocent people in the name of “Saffron terror” and had also tried to frame then BJP MP Yogi Adityanath and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Chaturvedi who was released on bail after 9 years, alleged that the then Congress-NCP government had tried to frame Hindu activists in order to appease Muslim voters. As alleged by him, the investigators questioned him about Yogi and his organisation Hindu Yuva Vahini’s profile. He further alleged that the way they questioned him, indicated that Yogi was their main target in trying to frame a prominent “saffron-clad” personality in the case.
Apart from such sensational claims, Chaturvedi has alleged that the accused were subjected to brutal torture. He also alleged that false evidence of a pistol and RDX were also planted against him by the ATS.
2008 Malegaon blast
On September 29, 2008 bomb blasts took place in the Malegaon region of Nashik district of Maharashtra which resulted in 4 deaths and left 80 injured.
Soon, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Lt Col Purohit were arrested in connection with the blast and as a result terms like “Hindu terror” or “Saffron terror” were popularised by some politicians and Leftist media after their arrests.
They continued languishing in jails till April and August 2017 respectively when Sadhvi Pragya and Col Purohit were given bail. This long incarceration of Sadhvi Pragya was also called into question by her lawyer who claimed that she should have got bail within half an hour.
