Malegaon ’06 blasts: MCOCA court declares ACP hostile

The Malegaon 2006 case is now being probed by the National Investigations Agency,which has arrested four Hindus for the blasts. The nine Muslims arrested earlier in the case were granted bail by the Special MCOCA court. A discharge application filed by the nine accused is still pending.

Shengal,during interrogation,denied to have played the role of a chief investigating officer in the serial train blast case that had claimed 188 lives. Special Judge Yatin D Shinde declared him a hostile witness after defence lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan told the court that the remand report bore Shengal’s signature. On Thursday the defence laywers had sought an order from the court to declare Shengal hostile. However,the court had rejected the plea.

While the ATS has maintained that Shengal was not a signatory to the panchnama of the seizure of RDX,the defence has contended that Shengal had arrested two of the accused in the 7/11 case in connection with the Malegaon bomb blasts of 2006,and had also supervised the disclosure of statements following which RDX was recovered.

Shengal’s examination will continue on October 1.