Another witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case has told the trial court in Mumbai today that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) tortured and forced him to name RSS leaders during interrogation.
As the witness denied having given a voluntary statement to the ATS, Judge PR Sitre of the special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases declared him hostile.
Of the 222 prosecution witnesses examined in the case so far, 17 have turned hostile.
The witness told the court today that the ATS, which had probed the case initially, took him in custody multiple times and tortured him.
ATS officials forced him to name the RSS and its leaders, he alleged. The witness said he is not a member of the RSS, nor did he know the name of any RSS functionary, the witness said.
Earlier, another prosecution witness told the court that the ATS had forced him to name Yogi Adityanath and four RSS leaders.
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in Maharashtra's Nashik district.
The accused in the case include BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sudhakar Diwedi, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sameer Kulkarni. All are out on bail.
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