2008 Malegaon blast: NIA says evidence fixed, ATS points to 17-day gap

Bagde was in-charge of the Nashik unit of the ATS at the time.

WATCH VIDEO: Video Of NIA Officers Outside Charminar

Questioning the suggestion that the Malegaon blast accused may have been framed, sources also point out that Bagde and one of the main accused in the ATS chargesheet in the case, Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, knew each other well in their official capacity.

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“The arrest of Purohit in the case came as a surprise to him,” a source said.

The ATS chargesheet held the blast to be the handiwork of Hindu right-wing outfit Abhinav Bharat, with whom Purohit was associated. The NIA has recommended the discharge of six in the case, and dropping of the stringent MCOCA against Purohit.

Chaturvedi, like Purohit, was an Army officer.

In its May 13 chargesheet, the NIA said two witnesses attached to the Military Intelligence (MI) unit of the Army, with whom Purohit was an officer, had told them that they had seen Bagde at Chaturvedi’s home in Nashik on November 3, 2008. Since the ATS officially carried out searches at Chaturvedi’s home only on November 25, 2008, the NIA raised questions over Bagade’s visit there earlier, “thereby creating a doubt on the recovery of swabs of RDX”.

A source close to Bagde, who is currently in charge of the NRI Coastal Police Station in Navi Mumbai, told The Indian Express, “While probing the case, the only lead on Chaturvedi’s home that the ATS Mumbai team managed to extract… was that it was somewhere close to the ‘Deolali Camp’ in Nashik. With his native place being barely 2 km from the Deolali Camp, Bagde was well-versed with the area and had a good informant network there. He was therefore assigned the task of locating Chaturvedi’s home.”

The source said that one of MI sepoys cited by the NIA as a witness was also a source of Bagde. “While Bagde did ask him about the whereabouts of Chaturvedi, he never pursued him for more details.”

According to the source, subsequently, “On November 3, 2008, Bagde along with his team searched premises near the Deolali Camp based on leads generated by the Mumbai unit of the ATS. However, they were not able to locate Chaturvedi’s house, and continued combing operations until November 20, when Chaturvedi was arrested. In custody, he gave details of his house located in Vanat Chawl in the Deolali Camp. On November 25, searches were conducted by a team headed by Bagde in presence of pancha witnesses and officials from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) of Mumbai.”

The source asks why the NIA hadn’t recorded statements of FSL officials who had collected the RDX swabs.

Talking about how Bagde and Colonel Purohit knew each other well, the source said, “The ATS and Army work in close coordination on sharing of intelligence information. Many a time Bagde had ferried Col Purohit in his vehicle and was influenced by the officer’s knowledge, especially on Islamic terror groups.”

Dismayed at the charge of “planting evidence” levelled at its officer, ATS sources said it brought into disrepute a premier counter-terror agency. “The same grounds were used by Col Purohit while seeking bail in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court, but both the courts rejected these claims,” a source pointed out.

“Our case clearly states that Purohit procured the explosives from Jammu and Kashmir. Why is the central agency silent on the source? If they are re-investigating the case, why aren’t they going deeper? Conveniently, 10 of the accused arrested by us are chargesheeted and the rest are let off citing lack of evidence. How can only a part of evidence collected by us be appreciated?” said another friend of Bagde who is also attached to the ATS.

An official with the ATS between 2006 and 2010, Bagde had also played an important role in the arrest of Himayat Baig, who is serving a life sentence in the 2010 German Bakery blast case.

Refusing to comment on the issue, Bagde told The Indian Express, “Whatever I did was part of my duty and as per instructions received from my seniors. The ATS will decide the legal recourse to take.”