MUMBAI: Two officers of Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad turned up at a Mumbai court to attend the trial in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast but had to leave soon after in view of objections from lawyers of some of the accused including Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bhopal MP, Pragya Singh Thakur aka Sadhvi Pragya.

The surprise appearance of the two ATS officers comes a fortnight after Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil’s statement that the ATS will appoint a lawyer to assist the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast trial

Mohan Kulkarni and Dinkar Mohite, the two officers who attended Thursday’s proceedings in Mumbai’s special NIA court, investigated the case before the Centre ordered the NIA to take over the probe in 2011.

The two officers told special NIA judge Prashant R Sitre that they have verbal orders from their senior officers to attend the trial on a day-to-day basis.

Lawyer Jaiprakash Mishra, who is appearing for two of the seven accused in the case, Pragya Singh Thakur and Ajay Rahirkar, however, promptly objected to their presence. Mishra said the ATS officers didn’t have a locus standi in the case and might influence the witnesses if they are present in the court.

Viral Babbar, counsel for another accused, Col Prasad Purohit, and other defence lawyers also objected to the presence of the ATS officers.

Accused Sameer Kulkarni, however, maintained that the trial should continue in open court, in which anyone can attend the proceedings.

To be sure, special judge Sitre’s predecessor, VS Padalkar, in October 2019 rejected requests by NIA to hold the trial in-camera that would have implied that no one other than the accused and their lawyers, prosecution and witnesses can be present. Pragya Thakur had supported NIA on this request but the judge made it clear that he intended to conduct the proceedings in a “transparent manner”.

As the defence lawyers objected to the presence of ATS officers, NIA officers told the court that they didn’t have any instructions about the presence of ATS in court and can get back with the agency’s position only after ATS submits a written letter to the court.

Thereafter, ATS officers left the court, saying that they will bring a written letter from their seniors to attend the proceedings on the next date of hearing, January 31.

Home minister Dilip Walse Patil’s offer to designate lawyers to help NIA was made after multiple witnesses turned hostile in the bomb blast case.

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

Sayyed Nisar Ahmed, who lost his son Sayyed Azhar Nisar Ahmed, 20, in the blast, has already made a formal request to the judge through his lawyer Shahid Nadeem that NIA take help from the ATS team that once investigated the case.

Of the 224 witnesses examined by the prosecution, 16 have turned hostile in the trial which started on November 2, 2018. The prosecution has submitted a list of around 286 witnesses that include doctors, police officials, forensic experts and independent witnesses.

The court framed charges against the seven accused for terror, criminal conspiracy and murder under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The accused facing trial in the case are Col Purohit, politician Pragya Singh Thakur alias Sadhvi Pragya, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.

Congress leader Arif Naseem Khan met Maharashtra ATS chief Vineet Agarwal on January 13, demanding that the ATS appoint its officers and law officers to join the trial, alleging that NIA was not prosecuting the accused with honesty.

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