1 week ago
13
MUMBAI: In his final statement in the 2008 Malegaon blast trial in the special NIA court, accused Lt Col Prasad
Purohit
has said that all the police officers who carried out what he called the "fabricated, orchestrated and concocted"
investigation
- on the orders of Hemant
Karkare
(then
ATS
chief), Param Bir Singh (then joint commissioner of ATS), and Mohan Kulkarni (then ACP-ATS and investigating officer) - were part of a
conspiracy
hatched by the senior officers to suit the political requirements of the government of the day at the Centre and the state.
A Congress-led govt was in office at the Centre and state when Purohit was arrested in 2008. He said that in Aug 2008, the president of a political party spoke about the existence of Hindu terrorists and the term 'Hindu terror' was coined. The coinage was immediately followed by the blast on Sept 29. The statement said these officers fabricated and planted evidence and were involved in the extra-judicial killings of wanted accused Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange and a witness.
Purohit said that with witnesses turning hostile and bringing out the fact that they were tortured to extract statements as required by ATS and or their political masters, it was clear that the whole case against him was a "concocted lie". He said the officers had compromised national security, demoralised intelligence officers and permanently harmed Army's reputation.
Purohit said that during his time as an intelligence officer, he initiated reports regarding "fugitive terror accused and ISI agent" Dawood Ibrahim, proclaimed fugitive Dr Ganapati of CPI (Maoist) and now-proclaimed fugitive Zakir Naik and illegal funding of his organisation.
"The meeting was to streamline the arms, ammunition, war-like stores and drug supply from ISI, Pakistan, to left-wing extremists and Naxalites in Dandakaranya special committee xone operating in entire penninsular India, especially after these supplies stopped getting into India from Nepal," Purohit said.He said he was treated worse than a prisoner of war. Karkare and Singh insisted that he should own up to "his role" and name functionaries of RSS and VHP, and Yogi Adityanath, the then MP from Gorakhpur, UP, Purohit said.
He claimed that while he was asked to leave a certain place on Nov 3, 2008, an ATS officer secretly requested him not to as there were orders to kill him the moment he got out of the premises. He said that the planting of RDX was carried out on the same day at co-accused Sudhakar Chaturvedi's home. He said he was brought to the city and "brutally" tortured after he was kept suspended by a rope tied to his wrist.
Purohit claimed that both the ATS and NIA, the first and second agency to investigate the case, respectively, did not go through the relevant documents to reaffirm that his actions were in the line of his duty and his superiors were kept informed all the time. He said that they instead kept the investigation limited to suit their ulterior motives to implicate him to destroy the intelligence apparatus operating in Southern Command.
Purohit alleged that Pakistan left no opportunity to equate the army, which he said was the finest in the world, with the rogue army of their own country. He said that Pakistan President Gen Parvez Musharraf went on to ask for his custody in the Samjhauta Express blast case, thanks to the ATS, which purportedly claimed that the explosives were provided by him.
English (US) ·