German Bakery case: Journalist moves HC, seeks fresh probe

A journalist on Monday moved the Bombay High Court seeking reinvestigation of the 2010 Pune German Bakery bomb blast case by an independent agency and also sought to intervene in the death confirmation petition of the lone convict Himayat Baig. The high court has posted hearing on the application on October 7.
In his application, the journalist Ashish Khetan alleged fabrication of evidence and tutoring of witnesses by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

According to Khetan, he has the video recordings of witnesses which he said cast a serious doubt on the entire trial, conviction of Baig and his sentencing.

A division bench of Justices PV Hardas and PN Deshmukh, however, opined that it would have to consider whether such intervening applications can be allowed in a confirmation petition.
The video recordings consist of conversations between Khetan and five prosecution witnesses, whose statements were relied on by the trial court.

“The witnesses stated that they were coerced and tutored into making deliberate false statements before the court with a malafide intention of securing conviction of the applicant.
“They have also stated that before they were to depose before the trial court, they were all kept separately for several days and tutored by the ATS personnel as to the nature of the recoveries and statements that were relied on to convict the accused in the trial,” according to the application.

On February 13, 2010, a bomb exploded inside the bakery killing 17 people, including five foreigners, and injuring 58 others. In April this year, the sessions court in Pune awarded death penalty to Baig observing that it was a rarest of rare case.

Seeking a fresh, independent and unbiased investigation into the matter, the application added, “One such witness, namely Abdul Sayyad Raheem, told the applicant that RDX allegedly recovered was planted on the accused and the whole recovery procedure was stage-managed.”

The court said that it would hear Baigs application seeking re-trial along with his appeal against the death penalty. While seeking re-trial, Baig had cast aspersions on his lawyer who defended him in the lower court alleging that he was an associate of an ATS officer.

JM Road blasts: Two IM suspects seek bail

Two alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives Asad Khan and Imran Khan, held for their complicity in Pune’s Jungli Maharaj Road serial blasts of 2012, on Monday urged bail from Bombay High Court saying that the investigating agency had not filed chargesheet against them within the mandatory period. Both of them had urged a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court earlier for bail which rejected their plea on April 22 this year.

Being aggrieved, they moved the High Court challenging the special court’s order. Their appeals came up before a bench of Justices PV Hardas and PN Deshmukh, who allowed the accused to carry out certain amendments in their applications. The matter will come up before the same bench in due course. Usha Kejriwal and Raja Thakre appeared for the state.