2008 Malegaon blast case: CBI expresses inability to transfer case of missing witness to NIA

An NIA spokesperson told The Indian Express, “MHA had transferred the investigation to NIA. Subsequently, NIA asked the CBI to transfer the case but they expressed inability to do so, saying that it was a court-directed investigation. We have now moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court for a direction to CBI to transfer the case. The matter is still pending with the Indore bench of the high court.”

Meanwhile, a source said that even the NIA probe pointed at the role of Ghule and More in Patidar’s disappearance. “Patidar was picked up to extract a fake confession that would have indicted Kalsangra and other arrested accused. It has been over eight years and Patidar is still missing. The custodial interrogation of Ghule and More is necessary to ascertain what happened to Patidar. Only they could throw light on the allegations of custodial death by Patidar’s family members,” said an NIA official.

In its chargesheet filed last year, NIA cast aspersions on the conduct of ATS officials probing the case. It had stated that Ghule and More had a role in the disappearance of Patidar, an important witness.

Recently, Mahiboob Mujawar, a suspended Assistant Police Inspector, triggered a row when he said unclaimed bodies found at the CST station during the November 2008 terror attacks were those of Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, two wanted accused in the Malegaon case. In his statement to the NIA, Mujawar had also claimed that Patidar was killed in the custody.