'Forced by Maharashtra ATS to take Adityanath's name', Malegaon case witness tells court
The Malegaon blast case from 2008, saw a peculiar twist as one of the witnesses on Tuesday claimed that he was forced by the Maharashtra ATS during questioning. He has said that he was 'forced to frame Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister yogi Adityanath' by the probing agencies. The witness gave his statement to a Special NIA court, news agency ANI reported.
Apart from Adityanath, he was forced to name 4 other people from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he told the court. However, the witness later retracted from his statement given to the ATS.
He now claims that he only said he was tortured by the Maharashtra ATS, and didn't take Adityanath or Indresh Kumar's names.
So far, 14 out of 218 witnesses examined by the special court for National Investigation Agency cases have turned hostile in the case.
Earlier on Wednesday, a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, who had allegedly attended a meeting where accused Army officer Prasad Purohit and Sudhakar Dwivedi spoke about "injustice" being meted out to Hindus, turned hostile before the special NIA court.
The other accused in the Malegaon case include BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur.
On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town in north Maharashtra, some 200 km from Mumbai.
