ATS officers tortured me to own up to Malegaon blast and name RSS, VHP, Yogi Adityanath: Lt Col. Purohit

Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, an accused in the Malegaon blast case of 2008, told a Mumbai Court on Wednesday that senior officers of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had forced him to take the blame for the explosion. .Purohit also said that he was tortured continuously and told to name the leaders of right-wing organisations like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and as well as then Member of Parliament (MP) Yogi Adityanath.The Army officer made the claim in a statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) before the Special Court which hears cases under the National Investigation Agency Act (NIA Act).Purohit is among the seven accused including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) PM Pragya Singh Thakur who are facing trial before the court in the 2008 case pertaining to the blast which killed six and injured over 100..In his statement, Purohit claimed that he was forcefully detained in a bungalow in Khandala after being taken from Pachmarhi, where he was posted on October 29, 2008. He was then allegedly interrogated by late Hemant Karkare (then ATS Chief), Param Bir Singh (then Joint Commissioner of ATS), Gajanan Kabdule (Police Inspector of ATS) and one Kamble of State Investigation Department (SID).“Karkare, Param Bir Singh and Col RK Shrivastav (then director of Military Intelligence from Army Headquarters) continued insisting that I should own up the Malegaon Bomb Blast and that I should name senior right-wing leaders of RSS and VHP, Yogi Adityanath, the then Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh. This torture continued incessantly till 3rd Nov 2008,” Purohit said in the statement. All this, Purohit claimed, was done to suit the political requirements of the then incumbent government at State and Centre level.“Each and every part of the claimed investigation conducted by these officers is a reflection of their professional and moral corruption and criminal mindset,” he said..Alleging his false implication in the case, Purohit further claimed that ATS planted explosive material in a co-accused’s house and also fabricated the seizure panchnamas. He further alleged that the witnesses who deposed in court had been tortured before giving their statements.“With the witnesses turning hostile and bringing out the facts that they were tortured, threatened, detained, at times at gun point to extract pre-fabricated statements as required by the ATS and or their political masters it is clear that the whole case against me is a concocted lie. In this shameful act, unfortunately, they have compromised the national security, source and informant network assisting the central investigating agencies, demoralized intelligence officers and have permanently harmed the Indian Army’s reputation,” the statement read..Meanwhile, Purohit has also named the then Director of the Military Intelligence and said that the head of the intelligence wing of the Army had given him treatment “worse than a prisoner of war of enemy country”.