Kumar"s statement came after a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case deposed before a special NIA court and said that he was forced to take names of Yogi Adityanath and four other RSS leaders including Indresh Kumar.
New Delhi, Dec 29: With a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case claiming that he was 'tortured' and 'forced' by Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) to 'falsely frame Yogi Adityanath', RSS leader Indresh Kumar has demanded an apology from former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Kumar said that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) conspired against 'saffron' to link it with terrorism.
"Congress-led UPA (during 2008 Malegaon blast) conspired against 'bhagwa' (saffron)...linked it with terrorism. They attempted to misuse (probe) agency officers to arrest people so as to defame religious leaders, but failed miserably," Indresh Kumar said in a radio message.
Kumar's statement came after a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case deposed before a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court and said that he was forced to take names of Yogi Adityanath and four other RSS leaders including Indresh Kumar.
"Now, if someone comes and says that Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh or Sushil Shinde, Rahul and Priyanka were not involved, it is wrong. The truth is the whole of Congress was involved. In fact, not just Congress, all those parties who were in an alliance with it were also involved, and are to be blamed equally," Indresh Kumar said, underlining that it was proved back then, and it has once again been proved now. The RSS leader added,"They all should apologise. They criminalized politics."
The witness told Special NIA court that he was 'tortured by ATS, the then probe agency of the case' and claimed that the ATS forced him to falsely name Yogi Adityanath and four other people from RSS. He told the court that after the blast he was kept confined in the Mumbai ATS office for 7 days and after that, the ATS threatened to torture and implicate his family members if he did not name the then BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.
This is the latest revelation in the case, which has witnessed several witnesses turning hostile and retracting their statements. Before this, at least 13 witnesses have turned hostile and denied the claims they previously made in front of the probe agencies.
The witnesses in the 2008 Malegaon blast case are being examined by the special National Investigation Agency (NIA). Last week as well, a witness retracted his statement that he had allegedly made before the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), which was probing the case initially.
Six people were killed and over 100 were injured when an improvised explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off at Malegaon, Maharashtra. The blast took place at a mosque on September 29, 2008.
What is the Malegaon bomb blast case?
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 others were injured after a bomb strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra. While the court framed charges against the accused in October 2018, the delay in the trial has been attributed to the novel coronavirus situation and the retirement of previous judge VS Padalkar. So far, only 140 of the 400 prosecution witnesses have been examined.
The terror charges against Lt. Col. Purohit, Pragya Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahikar, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi, and Sudhakar Chaturvedi entail Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They have also been charged under 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 Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Explosive Substances Act.
In the scenario of their conviction, they face the possibility of being sentenced to life imprisonment or death. Thakur has been granted exemption from appearance in court.
Inputs: R. - Newsbharti - PTI
