2008 Malegaon blast trial: 19th witness, retired army man, declared hostile

Mumbai: Another witness, a retired army man, was declared hostile in the 2008 Malegaon blast case on Thursday. He is the 19th witness to be declared so in the trial, of the total of 243 witnesses examined till date.

The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal said the witness did not support the case and said that he was pressurized into giving the statement. The witness further said that he did not remember what he had stated in it. While in his statement to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), that had probed the case initially, he had named some of the accused in the case, on Thursday, he said he did not know any of them, except Col. Prasad Purohit and explained that he knew him due to his army background.

In his statement to the ATS in 2008, the witness had said as per the statement, that Purohit, who he had got acquainted with, had told him that his trust was organizing a religious congregation at a temple in Bhopal and that some influential people would be present that would help him with his plan of setting up a school. Further, the statement read that he had gone to a small hall after darshan in the temple and there was a closed door meeting there. In this meeting, the statement said further that Purohit had discussed establishing some progress on some ‘Govt-in-Exile’ and that for this Govt-in-Exile, contacts were being established in Israel and Thailand. He had also spoken about forming a pure hindu organization and the need for an academy of ideological indoctrination, as per the statement.

Further, Purohit had purportedly spoken of political excommunication of those who would oppose and that excommunication will be in the form of elimination. Purohit had also allegedly said that he could train youth and has the capacity to execute operations.