Malegaon bomb blast case: Oppn slams NIA for failing to provide evidence
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Mumbai: The opposition blamed the ruling party for neglecting to deliver evidence against the defendants in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, which resulted in the acquittal of all seven suspects.
Former Congress Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan stated that the 2008 bomb blast outside a mosque in Malegaon killed six people and injured more than 100, and that the NIA special court recognised this.
“The question remains - why has no one been held guilty or convicted for this crime? Who killed these people in the blast? This shows that the investigating agencies, under the BJP-led government, deliberately withheld evidence that could have established the crime against the accused,” Chavan alleged, TNIE reported.
He claimed that because the NIA reports to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the special court's decision acquitting all seven suspects in the case was expected.
“No one is surprised with this order of the court. No one was held guilty in the Mumbai train bomb blast case as well. The High Court had then acquitted all accused because the probe agencies could not find any evidence. And the same, happened in Malegaon bomb blast as well.
"As long as these probe agencies are under Amit Shah, such kind of order will be delivered where no one will be guilty. Now, what are you going to do to the victims whose family members were killed in these blasts,” asked Chavan, as reported by TNIE.
He expressed that the recent verdict reflected a failure on the part of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), questioning why the Congress should be held accountable for the agency's actions or those directing it.
Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal emphasised that the Congress had borne significant losses due to terrorism, pointing to the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi as examples.
According to him, the party has always taken a strong position against terrorism and firmly believes that it should not be associated with any religion.
Sapkal also raised a question about the Maharashtra government’s response, whether the state government would approach the Supreme Court, drawing a comparison to its swift move to challenge the High Court’s decision in the Mumbai train blast case.
