One more witness turns hostile in 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case

One more witness has turned hostile in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. This is the 15th witness to turn hostile in the case. The witness told Mumbai's special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday that he was tortured by ATS, the then investigating agency of the case.

The witness told the court that he was kept in Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) office for seven days after the blast and after that, ATS threatened to torture and frame his family members. The witness told the court today that ATS forced him to falsely take Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and five RSS members' names.

The case is currently being investigated by NIA. Earlier on November 24, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur made an appearance in Mumbai's Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) trial court in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Apart from Thakur, LT Col Purohit, Chaturvedi, and Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi are also accused in the case. They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act, and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The charges include Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153(a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.