Malegaon blast case trial: Another witness turns hostile, 37 so far

File Photo/PTI

A person allegedly known to Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Pragya Singh Thakur has become the 37th witness to turn hostile in the 2008 Malegaon blast case trial.

Thakur, who represents the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, along with six other accused are facing the trial in the case.

As per his statement given to the Maharashtra police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which had probed the case earlier, the witness had attended functions of Thakur and was known to her.

However, while recording his testimony before a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge on Wednesday, the witness said that he doesn't know Thakur. He also denied voluntarily giving any statement to the ATS.

The court then declared him hostile. Of the more than 300 witnesses examined so far, 37 have not supported the prosecution case.

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The trial in the case began in 2018 after the special NIA court framed charges against Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Thakur and five others for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder, among others. All of them are out on bail.

Six people were killed and more than 100 injured on September 29, 2008, when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town in north Maharashtra, some 200 km from Mumbai.

The ATS probed the case initially before the NIA took over.

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