SC seeks response from Centre, Maharashtra govt, NIA on petitions in 2008 Malegaon blasts case

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaising sought an immediate intervention, contending that the accused were being granted bail either in the absence of the prosecution or with its consent. They pleaded for a stay on proceedings in the trial court.

But the bench said it would wait for the replies and that it may cancel the bail later if the allegations were found to be true.

The court will hear the case after a week. Hearing the petitions filed by Nisar Ahmed, the father of a blast victim, and activist Harsh Mander, it said there was no necessity to seek Salian’s response at this juncture.

In response to the notice, sources said, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to submit that Salian is still on the NIA’s panel and that the agency’s recommendation to remove her has not yet been approved. Based on this, the ministry will also argue that the premise of the petition is wrong.

After the NIA sent a proposal to it for Salian’s de-notification as its prosecutor on July 8, the MHA asked for certain clarifications. These included questions on tenure of public prosecutors as a policy, list of all such prosecutors who had completed five years representing NIA, if they were appointed in special cases or as part of a panel, how many cases were referred to Salian and two other prosecutors whose removal was also recommended, outcome of these cases and what was the specific reason behind recommending removal of these prosecutors. According to MHA sources, they are yet to get the NIA’s response to all the queries.

NIA DG Sharad Kumar, however, said: “MHA had raised some queries, which we have replied. They raised some more which we are in the process of clarifying. As far as reasons for de-notification of three prosecutors is concerned, MHA has already been apprised of it.”

Sources said that the ministry would submit before the court that the trial in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case had not begun when Salian made the allegations and thus the question of putting any pressure on her to “go slow” in the case does not arise.

Salian told The Indian Express on Friday that she did not want to comment on the court’s decision and it was up to the other parties to reply to it.

“Let the affected parties reply to the notice. I would not like to comment on it at this juncture,” she said.

Significantly, the victims of the Malegaon blast have also approached Salian, asking her to represent them in the trial as “watching advocate”. Salian said she was yet to decide on this. “I have not yet given a green signal to the victims who approached me to represent them. I will wait and see what happens in the Supreme Court and then decide,” she said.

Asked if she is considering appearing against the NIA in the Malegaon case, she said, “This is not going against the NIA, it is in favour of the victims. There is a slight difference. We have to weigh the pros and cons. Ultimately justice should be done and we can only do it through prosecution. I am waiting for the Supreme Court to give guidelines on this.”

The Malegaon blast on September 29, 2008 claimed four lives and injured 79. Twelve people were arrested in the case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Four of them are out on bail.