Malegaon blasts case: NIA looks for missing statements of witnesses

[related-post]

Designated special prosecutor Avinash Rasal, who represents the NIA, said the papers could have been misplaced in transit as the case travelled between High Court, Supreme Court, the local court in Nashik and the sessions court in Mumbai, but was confident that they would be traced. “Even if they were misplaced, there are provisions in the Evidence Act which allow for the documents to be reconstructed and produced as secondary evidence,” said Rasal.

Defence lawyer of Col Purohit, Shrikant Shivade, said the papers being misplaced might not affect the case at all. “There are many times when the case papers go missing. The usual practice in many courts is that the original papers are with the police station or the station magistrate and copies of it are produced before the court where the trial commences. It will have to be seen whether the court had the original documents. If they cannot be found, the prosecution and the defence has the copies to reconstruct it,” said Shivade.

“The witness statements recorded before the magistrate under 164 CrPC were last referred to in the court during the bail arguments in the months of September-October but were not presented before the court as they were not called for either by the

defence, the prosecution or the court,” said the official. “The papers are now with the court so we are not aware of it. There were some inquiries made of the certain papers going missing on Wednesday. We are looking into it,” said an NIA spokesperson.