The NIA’s Malegaon clean chit: How UPA sat on case transfer, Supreme Court on interrogation plea

The result: the accused were chargesheeted without any custodial interrogation and with little or no new evidence, the NIA states.

The blasts in Malegaon killed four on September 29, 2008, but the case was handed over to the NIA, set up in 2009, by the UPA government only on April 13, 2011. Earlier, the Maharashtra ATS had probed and filed a chargesheet in the case – the NIA later described that probe as flawed.

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The NIA chargesheet states that the “time lag” [delay in transfer of the case] “has led to a situation wherein no additional evidence could be collected from the scene of the crime and the veracity of the evidence collected by the previous investigation agency could not be fully substantiated”.

It stated that the delay also prevented the agency from obtaining electronic evidence “which proved to be a major hurdle in the investigation, especially collection of material evidence to substantiate the statement of various witnesses and accused persons”.

On the delay in court, the NIA stated in its chargesheet that it wanted to conduct custodial interrogation of the accused “to clarify gaps in the investigation”. It stated that the accused did not cooperate with the investigation when they were examined in jail.

Following a plea against such interrogation by the accused, the matter was taken up by the Supreme Court in 2011 and has been pending since.

In its chargesheet, NIA stated that a special court granted it police custody of accused Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi and Ramesh Upadhyay on July 19, 2011, and that the decision was upheld by Bombay High Court.

But on October 20, 2011, the accused approached the Supreme Court for relief.

Amid the hold-up, the apex court decided on other issues brought before it by various accused through multiple petitions, including invocation of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the right of the accused to seek bail.

It was while hearing the plea on MCOCA that Justice Fakkir Mohammed Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre ruled on April 15, 2015: “Since we have not heard arguments on the question as to the claim of NIA in seeking custody covered by SLP (Crl.) No. 9303 of 2011 and SLP (Crl.) No. 9369 of 2011, the same are delinked and shall be listed in due course”.

NIA sources said the issue carried no relevance now since the chargesheet had already been filed.

“Since the matter of granting police custody of accused persons has been pending in the Supreme Court since long and in view of the instructions of the Supreme Court for speedy trial, it was decided to examine all accused persons in judicial custody…,” the NIA chargesheet stated.

In its chargesheet, the NIA also stated that the evidence produced against Col Purohit, another key accused, had been fabricated, and statements of witnesses were taken under duress.

The agency also decided to drop charges under the stringent MCOCA against Purohit and all other accused and stated that they would be charged under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.