One more witness turns hostile in 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case

One more witness turned hostile in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case in the Special NIA Court on Thursday.

The witness, a former army officer, is the 19th witness to have turned hostile in the case.

Lt Colonel Prasad SL Purohit, an accused in the case, was present in the court during the hearing today.

The witness refused to recognise anyone except for Lt Colonel Purohit.

The matter would be heard again on March 25.

Apart from Thakur, Lt Col Purohit, Chaturvedi, and Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi are also accused in the case. They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act, and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The charges include Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA and 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 IPC.

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

( With inputs from ANI )

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