Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 2 : Sameer Kulkarni, one of the seven accused acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, expressed his gratitude towards the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday. He further slammed the then-incumbent Congress state government, alleging that they were engaging in appeasement politics ahead of the 2009 Maharashtra elections.
"We immediately expressed gratitude to the court... We fought this legal battle for the self-respect of the majority Hindu community. The then Congress government committed this heinous act of Muslim appeasement for the 2009 state elections and they were also unable to save the lives of Malegaon's innocent victim taxpayers," Sameer Kulkarni told ANI.
Kulkarni further hit out at several Congress leaders and mentioned that he would not have been able to come out of jail alive if the government had not changed in 2014. He also thanked the Union and Maharashtra state governments for their assistance in the matter.
"If the Hindu community had not realised its duty and changed the government in the country in 2014, we could not have come out alive. This is why we express our gratitude towards the central and state government... I call out to the Hindu community to never vote for Congress so that no innocent is trapped again...", Sameer Kulkarni said.
Kulkarni also made serious allegations against investigative agencies handling the Malegaon blast case, stating that evidence was erased and tampered with.
"Even the ATS and other officers were pressurised and evidence was erased or manipulated... There were a lot of ATS officers who didn't know their statements were falsely recorded by their seniors... The main reason for framing us was that we were opposing the illicit work of the Congress government," Kulkarni said.
On July 31, Mumbai's NIA special court on Thursday acquitted all seven accused of being involved in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, with the court saying that the prosecution failed to establish the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The NIA court has also ordered the Maharashtra government to award Rs 2 lakh compensation to the families of the victims and Rs 50,000 compensation to the injured.
A total of 7 people were accused, including former MP Sadhvi Pragya, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhankar Dhar Dwivedi (Shankaracharya) and Sameer Kulkarni.
"All bail bonds of the accused are cancelled and sureties are discharged," the NIA special court said.
The court had examined 323 prosecution witnesses and eight defence witnesses before pronouncing the verdict. The seven people have been acquitted of all charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and all other charges.
"Prosecution proved that a blast occurred in Malegaon but failed to prove that a bomb was placed in that motorcycle," Judge Abhay Lohati said.
The court also mentioned that there was some manipulation of medical certificates. "The court has come to the conclusion that the injured people were not 101 but 95 only, and there was manipulation. In some medical certificates," the court said.
The court also said that there is no evidence of storing or assembling the explosives in Prasad Purohit's residence, who was another accused in the case."No sketch of the spot was done by the investigation officer while doing the panchnama. No fingerprint, dump data or anything else was collected for the spot. The samples were contaminated, so reports can't be conclusive and relied upon," the court said.
On the alleged role of the Abhinav Bharat organisation, the court said that there was no evidence of the funds of the organisation being used for terror activities.
On September 29 2008, six people were killed and 95 others injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle detonated near a mosque in Malegaon City's Bhikku Chowk. Originally, 11 people were accused in the case; however, the court ultimately framed charges against 7, including former MP Sadhvi Pragya