One more witness in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case has turned hostile, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court hearing the case said on Tuesday.
The said witness was the landlord of accused Sudhakar Chaturvedi for some time in 2006-07. He denied having given any statement to National Investigation Agency (NIA).
This is the 24th witness in this case who has turned hostile.
Some of these witnesses have given their statements to Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) which was investigating the case initially, some hostile witnesses had given their statements to the present investigating agency NIA also but have now turned hostile.
Earlier in March, one more witness in the case had turned hostile. 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.
In the 2008 Malegaon blast case, six people were killed and over 100 injured after an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon in north Maharashtra, about 200 kilometres from Mumbai. All the seven accused in the case are currently out on bail.
BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahilkar and Sudhakar Chaturvedi are the other accused in the case.
