Malegaon judge rejects claim ATS wanted RSS chief arrested

Mumbai: In the 1,036-page judgment in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, the special NIA court, while acquitting all seven accused, has dismissed claims that senior officers from Maharashtra ATS had directed one of the investigating officers to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the case.Special judge A K Lahoti said the court didn't find force in the contentions raised by the lawyer for a now-acquitted accused, math pontiff Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, reports Rebecca Samervel. The lawyer had alleged ATS investigating fficer Mehboob Mujawar allegedly refused to carry out the order to arrest Bhagwat, saying he found no evidence of his involvement. As a result, Mujawar was "entangled in a false case by ATS".

Claim must be proved through testimony, says judge in Malegaon blasts verdictWhile Mehboob Mujawar first made the claim in 2016, he was back in the news on Friday, repeating his statement a day after the trial court’s verdict in the blast case.Mujawar was not among the witnesses who deposed before the special NIA court in the Malegaon blast case, but he first made this claim before a Solapur court in 2016 in a case registered against him. The special NIA court held that that was “his defence before the particular court” and was not presented as testimony in the Malegaon blast case.

The judge concluded that while Mujawar was a member of the ATS team investigating the case, documents submitted by the defence lawyer did not provide sufficient, provable evidence to consider the claim. The judge noted these documents included a certified copy of an application and a statement given by Mujawar in a separate case. The judge stated that these documents alone could not be considered evidence in the trial, as Mujawar was not examined as a witness in the Malegaon blast case.

“So merely placing some documents is not sufficient. It must be proved through the cogent and reliable testimony of the concerned witness,” the judge said.The trial court judge referred to the statement of ATS ACP Mohan Kulkarni, who had denied the suggestion given in his cross-examination that Mujawar was sent by them (ATS) to bring one senior office-bearer of RSS. Kulkarni admitted that Mujawar was sent to trace two accused, Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange.

He denied the suggestion that Mujawar publicly declared that ATS shot dead two persons and hence his name was not included in the list of witnesses filed with the chargesheet.In 2016, Mujawar had claimed Dange and Kalsangra were “no more” but were being still shown as alive by police officers. This claim too was made in an affidavit before the Solapur court when Mujawar was accused in a separate case of criminal intimidation and under the Arms Act.

Subsequently, Kalsangra’s family demanded a thorough investigation into the allegations of murder.Months earlier, in May 2016, it was reported that Dange was spotted in Nepal on several occasions. Both Kalsangra and Dange, it was claimed, were RSS workers. The cross-examination of NIA Dy SP Anil Dubey showed he knew Mujawar was a team member of ATS.