Mumbai, Jul 31 (PTI) The acquittal of all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case was a “significant failure” of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which did not pursue perjury charges against the witnesses who turned hostile, a victims’ lawyer said on Thursday.
The relatives of the victims will file an appeal in the Bombay High Court against the special NIA court’s judgement, said advocate Shahid Nadeem.
“The case highlights significant failures on the part of the NIA….there seems to be a lack of effective strategy. Witnesses turned hostile during the trial, yet the NIA did not pursue perjury charges against any of them, despite requests from the victims,” said Nadeem who represented some of the victim families.
The victims continue to suffer from the trauma they experienced, he told PTI, adding, “They are determined to seek justice and will pursue legal remedies by filing an independent appeal in the Bombay High Court after reviewing the judgment.” None of the witnesses from Malegaon town or those produced by the previous probe agency — Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) — turned hostile, he claimed.
“As an advocate who attended the trial daily, I believe the NIA could have performed better had it prioritized the concerns of the victims,” Nadeem said.
Nearly 17 years after a blast in Malegaon town of north Maharashtra claimed six lives, a special court here acquitted all the accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, noting there was “no reliable and cogent evidence” against them.
Of the 323 prosecution witnesses, 37 did not back the prosecution’s case during their testimony, and were declared ‘hostile’. PTI AVI SP KRK
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