2008 Malegaon blast trial: Another witness declared hostile; tally reaches 18

On Monday, another witness was declared hostile in the 2008 Malegaon blast trial, taking the number of witnesses to be declared so, to eighteen.

The prosecution has till date examined as many as 232 witnesses in the case. The blast had taken place on Sep 29, 2008 in Malegaon town of the state’s Nashik district and had led to the loss of six lives and injuries to over 100 persons.

The witness, the owner of a hotel in Madhya Pradesh’s Pachmarhi where a camp was allegedly arranged by accused Col. Prasad Purohit after the blast, on Monday denied before court that his statements were recorded by either the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), that had probed the case earlier or the National Investigation Agency (NIA), that had taken over the case.

As per his previous statement, the witness had stated that he had arranged a camp for 40-50 persons at his hotel in Oct 2008 on the request of Purohit, who was introduced by an acquaintance to him. The statement said he had seen Purohit closely involved in the camp’s arrangements. Before court on Monday, he said he does not recognize Purohit.

The statement mentions that Purohit had asked him to arrange air-rifles at the camp, which he said he could not arrange. Also, he was asked to watch a video on Bangladeshi infiltrators by Purohit, the statement read. It also mentions that one of the participants at the camp introduced himself as Sudhakar Chaturvedi, another accused in the case. The witness, as per the statements, had said that Purohit had told him that the camp was on ‘Art of Living’ but that he could see it was on something else and had mentioned that ‘lathi training’ was being given to participants.