Mumbai: A witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case on Monday identified the motorcycle used for executing the blast. This can spell trouble for parliamentarian Pragya Singh Thakur, the prime accused in the case.
The half damaged Freedom LML motorcycle was brought to court premises in a tempo, along with a few fully destroyed cycles.
This comes after a Panch, who had witnessed the (Panchanma) seizure of the bike and other vehicles from the crime scene, appeared before the special court to record his testimony.
The witness along with special Judge Vinod Padalkar, special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal, advocates of the accused and the court staff, moved out of the courtroom and went to the court compound to examine the vehicles. Even the accused Sameer Kulkarni and Swami Amrutanand alias Shankaracharya were also present.
The prosecution showed the vehicles laden in the tempo to the witness and subsequently he identified the motorcycle, which had a Freedom sticker on its front light.
During all this, special judge Padalkar climbed onto the tempo and used his cellphone torch to take a closer look of the vehicles. Having examined the vehicles, the special judge ordered the prosecution to take the tempo away from court premises.
While speaking about the examination, Rasal said, “This witness’s examination supports our case. We wanted to bring on record that this bike was used in the blast and the same has been established now before the court.”
“The witness has only identified the bike, but has not said that it was Pragya’s. To prove that it was her bike, we already have documents which show that it still stands in her name,” Rasal told the Free Press Journal.
The panch witness would now be cross-examined by the advocate of the accused on Tuesday and the trial would continue.
