13 witnesses turned hostile in Ajmer blast case in 6 months

[Areesh]

JAIPUR: Along with the Malegaon case, the trial of the Ajmer blasts too appears to be hanging in suspense, with an assistant public prosecutor in Rajasthan saying that as many as 13 key witnesses in the case have turned hostile between November 2014 and May 2015.

While it's not unusual for witnesses to change their statements made to the police in a court at the time of trial, one of the witnesses who has gone back on his statement is a minister in Jharkhand's BJP government, Randheer Singh, said the assistant public prosecutor of the Ajmer blast case Ashwini Kumar.

"Singh was declared hostile in the court on May 6, 2015, as he went back on his statements," prosecutor Sharma told TOI on Saturday.

In his testimony to the investigating agencies, Randheer Singh had claimed to have seen two of the accused in the Ajmer blast case test-fire a weapon. A CBI court (special judge) in Jaipur has been conducting the Ajmer blast case's trial.

The blast at the dargah of the Sufi saint Moinuddin Chisti in October 2007 killed three people and wounded over a dozen. Initial investigations were conducted by the Rajasthan anti-terror squad and later taken over by the National Investigating Agency, which chargesheeted 12 people.

"The 'material witnesses' on whose testimony the case's outcome depends started coming from November last year. One by one, they started turning hostile," said Sharma, the assistant public prosecutor.

Witnesses turning hostile in such large numbers are likely to add to the controversies that started after Rohini Salian, the special public prosecutor in the Malegaon case, recently said that under the NDA, she was asked by the NIA to go slow in the Malegaon blast case, which too involves accused from Hindu outfits.

13 witnesses turned hostile in Ajmer blast case in 6 months - The Times of India

 

[Nicky G]

Cooked up case, obviously will fall apart in absence of political patronage.

 

[Areesh]

@syedali73 you are not surprised. Aren't you?

 

[Nicky G]

A prosecutor with an axe to grind. Typical childish arguments, easy to destroy.

Indian Express posts onesided report on Hindu Terror without asking NIA?

Indian Express has earned a rather bad reputation when it comes to publishing factual news. Many news stories of Indian Express have turned out to be fake, and most of them have been critical of BJP or theModi Government, but without any facts to back them up. In what may be the latest such instance, Indian Express is under fire for a story which claims Modi Government has asked Public Prosecutors to go slow on “Hindu Terrorists”.

Firstly, the entire post is based only on an interview with Rohini Salian, Special Public Prosecutor in the case related to the Malegaon 2008 blasts. Indian Express, has drawn whatever conclusions it has, only based on the version of this lady.

Salian claims, that over the past one year, she has been asked to go “soft” on this case. She says a senior officer from NIA told her this, but for some reason stops short of naming him, citing that he is “senior”. She also claims that “higher-ups” did not want her to appear in the court for the State of Maharashtra and that another advocate was asked to attend the proceedings.

While she claims that the Government has asked her to go slow, she also mentions that the Supreme Court has now decreed that the case should be tried in a special court with a specially appointed judge to see to the matter, because of which, “its back to square one”.

The problem it seems, with the Indian Express report, is that it is one-sided, written without confirming the facts with NIA. And hence, the NIA in a strongly worded rebuttal has rejected these theories.

Firstly, NIA says, on 16th June 2015 itself, it has received recommendations for denotification of 3 Special Public Prosecutors including Salian, in view of the fact that many Special Public Prosecutors are already available. NIA further says this reccomendation is under process. On the other hand Salian says she wants the NIA to denotify her from the case so that she can fight “other cases, against the NIA, if need be”. So while the process to denotify her began almost 10 days back, Salian now herself wants to get denotified. Is it a case where Salian got whiff of her removal in advance, and in order to cover that fact, she wants to give a twist, trying to signal that here removal is Political?

Secondly, NIA makes it clear that the Malegaon case, which Salian is handling, hasn’t yet reached the trial stage. As per rules of NIA, when cases haven’t reached such advanced stages, “the branch Public Prosecutors (who are Government Officers) deal with the same except when a complex legal matter is involved which warrant the services of Special Public Prosecutors”. “Therefore”, it says, “it is incorrect to infer that Ms Salian was being bypassed for court appearances “.

Further, NIA completely denies issuing any “inappropriate briefing” by any officer to Salian. It also chides Indian Express for a one-sided story by saying:

NIA also wishes to place on record that before publishing a news article , it is expected that the concerned reporter approaches the agency for hearing its version and avoids writing a one sided story.

So for now, it is the NIA’s word vs the Indian Express’s interview with the Public Prosecutor. Only time and probably the courts will tell who was speaking the truth.

 

[syedali73]

@syedali73 you are not surprised. Aren't you?

I have stopped reading such news for this is no news in the first place. According to John B. Bogart: "When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news."

 

[Vincent valentine]

Pakistanis and their masturbation is awesome.

 

[The_Showstopper]

That was expected....

 

[Thorough Pro]

Which one do you like more? Pakistani's or their cum? guess Indians have a weakness for white things..

Pakistanis and their masturbation is awesome.