The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday handed over non-truncated copies of 122 witness statements to the defence in the 2008 Malegaon blasts trial.
The agency had earlier refused to share information about several “sensitive” witnesses with the accused — BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Major (retd.) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Ajay Rahilkar.
Mr. Purohit had filed an application in court seeking all the details for a “fair trial”. The application said, “The documents supplied by NIA to him are without furnishing the names of any witnesses and most … are in the truncated form. The extent of truncation is so wide that it is impossible to construe the true import of the contents of the statements … the prosecution has deprived him of his statutory right to prepare for cross-examination and his defence.”
Appeal in HC
On November 21, 2018, the NIA court refused to share the witness names with him, after which he filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court.
On February 2, 2019, the NIA told the HC it was willing to share statements of witnesses, but it would file an application in the trial court seeking police protection for 38 sensitive prosecution witnesses. NIA counsel Sandesh Patil had told the HC that out of the 475 witnesses statements, 186 had been truncated. Of these, 38 witnesses were “sensitive” and would have to be given police protection. Their evidence would have to be recorded in-camera, he had said.
Defence lawyer Ranjeet Sangle told The Hindu , “Under NIA and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), names and other information was withheld from us. But … we need a fair and reasonable chance to conduct the chief and cross-examination of all witnesses. Therefore, untruncated copies have been given.”
On October 30, 2018, the NIA court had charged all the accused with murder, abetment and conspiracy under the UAPA.
