2006 blast case: Nanded court calls prosecution’s evidence ‘totally untrustworthy’, finds no terror links

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and subsequently the CBI had booked the men for a blast which took place at a residence in Nanded on April 6, 2006, causing two deaths. The prosecution had claimed that the men had links with RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal, and the accused, including the two who died, were involved in assembling a bomb in preparation of conducting explosions to create rift between communities. The accused had claimed that it was an incident of negligence in storing firecrackers which led to the explosion and not a bomb blast.

The court questioned the prosecution claim that a live bomb was recovered from a rexine bag at the spot, since despite the fire due to the explosion and the water used to douse the fire, the bag was neither burnt nor wet, when it was recovered by officials.

“…there was recovery of boxes of fire crackers from the spot and FIR was also depicting the explosion due to negligent storage of fire crackers. All these aspects are unfavourable to the prosecution’s version about bomb explosion and recovery of live bombs from the spot,” the sessions court said in its order passed on January 4 and made available on Wednesday. While it was claimed that metal splinters were found in the bodies of the two dead-Himanshu Panse and Naresh Rajkondwar, the court said that there was nothing to prove that the splinters recovered were from a bomb.

The court also pointed to other discrepancies in the probe, noting that all eight independent witnesses, who were to have been present during recoveries linked to the accused, had not supported the prosecution’s case. It said that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, which included police officials, was ‘totally untrustworthy’. The chargesheet claimed that the accused were linked with ‘Hindu extremist organisations’. “But, there is absolutely no document tendered by the prosecution to establish that any of the said organisations were notified as ‘terrorist organisations’ by the central government at the relevant time. Therefore, mere recovery of the literature, diaries, communications relating to any of such organisations cannot be construed as part of conspiracy…” additional sessions judge C V Marathe said.

This was among three cases where the ATS had named members of Hindutva groups for explosions between 2004 and 2006, including one in Jalna and another in Parbhani. The accused in these two cases too were acquitted earlier, in 2013 and 2018, respectively.

In 2022, a former RSS worker, Yashwant Shinde, had approached the Nanded court in this case, seeking to be examined as a witness, claiming that three men, including a senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader, were main conspirators in the case, and said that he had attended a training camp in Pune. The court, however, rejected the plea questioning why he had not made an attempt to approach the investigating agency in the past 16 years. His appeal against this order is pending in the Bombay High Court. The Nanded court in its order said that since there was no stay on the trial, it passed the final judgment.