2008 Malegaon Blast: Submit Complete Names Of Witnesses Before Us And The Spl NIA Court; Bombay HC Directs NIA

Division bench of Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice AM Badar was hearing an appeal filed by Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, one of the accused in the blast that killed six and injured over a hundred people. Purohit moved HC after the Spl NIA Court refused to share names of prosecution's witnesses with him. He had filed a couple of applications before the Spl NIA Court alleging that the complete list of all witnesses had not been shared by the prosecuting agency and the list was shared had been redacted heavily to hide names of those the agency wanted to protect.

Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivade submitted that since these names of some witnesses have been redacted, he would not be able to cross-examine those witnesses.

Although NIA had initially opposed Purohit's plea, refusing to share names of such witnesses as it was a 'sensitive case'. Yesterday, NIA's counsel Sandesh Patil said that he will be able to submit the complete list in a sealed envelope by next week on July 22. In the meantime, NIA will not cross-examine any of the witnesses.

Thereafter, Court referred to the judgement of the Supreme Court in Kartar Singh vs State of Punjab, and held that the investigating agency should have shared the names of witnesses with the trial court in a sealed cover earlier.

The bench then directed NIA to submit the complete list of witnesses before the Spl NIA Court as well as the High Court.