Special Public Prosecutor in the Malegaon explosion case, Rohini Salian, had on June 25 claimed that an officer of NIA had in May last year asked her to "go soft" on the case.
Against the backdrop of public prosecutor Rohini Salian's claims that NIA asked her to go slow in Malegaon case, CPI(M) on Thursday accused the Centre of having a communal outlook on terrorism and shielding Hindutva forces while sending out a message that they would be "no justice" for minorities.
The party, in an editorial in the forthcoming issue of its mouthpiece People's Democracy, said the Centre's alleged manipulation of cases concerning "Hindutva terrorist attacks are dangerous portents".
Former party General Secretary Prakash Karat, who penned the editorial, said the revelations by Salian were "serious" and have "disturbing" implications.
"The communal outlook of Government on terrorism and manipulation of cases concerning the Hindutva terrorist attacks are dangerous portents. For scores of Muslims who died in these attacks and their families, the message has gone that there will be no justice for them. For the Hindutva fanatics also the message is clear, though a different one: Here is a government that will be a protective shield," Karat said.
Special Public Prosecutor in the explosion case Salian had on June 25 claimed that an officer of NIA had in May last year asked her to "go soft" on the case. This was followed by her being asked not to appear in the case.
"After Modi Government's coming to power, the NIA stance of going slow on these cases and scuttling them had become apparent. Salian's courageous expose has only confirmed this diabolical attempt to protect those guilty of terrorist crimes. By the perverse logic of Sangh combine only Muslims can be terrorists, not Hindus," Karat said.
Referring to Gujarat's Ishrat Jahan encounter case, Karat said the Union Home Ministry allegedly refused CBI permission to prosecute some IB officers, found to be involved in the killing, which resulted in compromising the case "severely".
"The Modi Government has also moved to protect state terrorism. With this (the Ministry refusing permission to prosecute officers), the murder case of Ishrat has been severely compromised. The BJP government has found a way to scuttle a case which had badly sullied the image of the then Modi government in Gujarat," Karat charged.
In the 2008 Malegaon blast case, 12 persons, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, were arrested. Of these 12, four are on bail. The NIA took over the case in 2011 and later three more accused were arrested. However, they were granted bail in the case by default as charge sheet was not filed against them. The Malegaon blast on September 29, 2008 killed four persons and injured another 79. Investigations initially cast suspicion on the involvement of minority community in the incident. However, the probe under late Hemant Karkare, the then ATS Chief, suspected the involvement of right wing extremists and arrested Sadhvi Thakur and others.
Salian is also a prosecutor in Mulund bomb blast case (in which three cases are clubbed together) and 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case. She has also appeared in some high profile TADA cases and MCOCA cases.
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