2008 Malegaon blasts case: Officer on NIA deputation named by prosecutor now with Nagpur police

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Sources in the agency questioned the timing of the reparation of the officer who was at the helm of the Malegaon 2008 blast probe. “Generally, central deputation is for five years but in Warke’s case he had completed only four years. Also his repatriation came when the agency had filed its chargesheet in the case, in which six accused including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur have been given a clean chit owing to lack of evidence against them,” a senior NIA officer told The Indian Express. “Rohini Salian had identified Warke as the officer who asked her to go soft in the case.”

Also read: Tracking the Malegaon case: trial court to SC and back

The NIA court has since denied bail to Pragya and pulled up the agency over the way it conducted its probe.

Warke confirmed having sought repatriation. Warke, who began his stint on central deputation in December 2012, joined as superintendent of police in Mumbai and was promoted as deputy inspector general of the same unit in 2015. “After completing four years in May first week, I sought repatriation and it was granted. I am now back in my parent cadre,” Warke told The Indian Express. This was before his posting in Nagpur was finalised.

In October last year, over three months after Salian had given an interview to The Indian Express, she named Warke in an affidavit she filed in Bombay High Court relating to initiation of contempt proceedings against the NIA for “tending to hamper the judicial process, resulting in “weakening of the prosecution’s case”.

“I am told that a criminal contempt petition is filed before this honb’le court and in administration of justice and as an officer of the court, I am disclosing the name of the NIA officer, who had tried to interfere with the delivery of the administration of justice, as a messenger. His name is Suhas Warke, SP, NIA, Mumbai branch,” Salian said in her affidavit.

In the affidavit, Salian referred to her interview to The Indian Express published on June 25. “I reiterate and affirm that whatever I have stated in my interview to the newspaper Indian Express… is true and correct and I reiterate the same as it is specifically stated therein,” she said, adding that the incident happened in the second or third week of June 2014.