A DAY after the Special Court acquitted seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, allegations by a former Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer that he was asked to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat found mention in the detailed judgment, a copy of which was made available on Friday. The court, however, said that since he was not examined as a witness in the case, and his statement was made before a Solapur court, it cannot be construed as evidence.
The order, which has a separate section titled “Directions to arrest RSS chief”, states that the lawyer of one of the accused, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, had, during the trial, brought a statement made by the former ATS officer, Mehboob Mujawar, in a Solapur court which said: “The senior ATS officers had given directions to him (Mujawar) to arrest Mr Mohan Bhagwat (RSS chief) by taking him in custody.”
According to the statement, Mujawar denied Bhagwat’s role and declined to arrest him. A false case was then allegedly filed by the ATS against Mujawar, who was later acquitted.
The court observed that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had already inquired with the former ATS officer on his allegations.
On Thursday, Mujawar repeated these claims before the media. He named an IPS officer, who, he claimed, had asked him to arrest Bhagwat. He alleged that since he did not arrest Bhagwat, a false case under the Arms Act was registered against him (Mujawar) at the officer’s behest and he was suspended. Mujawar claimed that a Solapur court later acquitted him in the case.
The officer against whom the allegation was made did not respond.
Posting a video clip of Mujawar’s statement, the BJP said on X: “This is not just a scandal, it is an abuse of power, a conspiracy against the nation, and a sinister plot to malign nationalists. Who were the higher authorities? Who has the political cover for this witch-hunt? Who tried to falsely frame the RSS chief?”
In its order, the court said: “The PW-320 (ACP Mohan Kulkarni, ATS chief investigating officer) had denied the suggestion given in his cross examination that Mehboob Mujawar was sent by them to bring one senior office-bearer of RSS. But admitted that he was sent to find out / trace out AA-1 (absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra) and AA-2 (absconding accused Sandeep Dange). He also denied the suggestion that Mehboob Mujawar publicly declared that the ATS shot dead two persons and hence, his name was not included in the list of witness filed with chargesheet.”
The order also refers to the deposition of Anil Dubey, NIA’s investigating officer, who said that Mujawar was called to the agency’s office and they inquired with him about his statements in the media about the deaths of Kalsangra and Dange.
In 2016, Mujawar had claimed that he was “witness to their killings and the disposal of their bodies as victims of 26/11 terror attacks”. He claimed that the duo had been shot dead in custody by the ATS, and he was later asked to lead attempts to look for them. The two wanted accused have not been traced till date.
The court said Mujawar was not listed as a witness, nor was he examined as a witness by either the prosecution or the defence. On the documents containing Mujawar’s allegations mentioned in the Solapur court, the court said: “The statement recorded u/s 313 of CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code, statement of accused) cannot be construed as evidence on the counts that the statement is not recorded before this court and in support of those documents, he is not examined as a witness before this court. So, merely placing some documents is not sufficient. It must be proved through the cogent and reliable testimony of the concerned witness.”
“Moreover, those documents show that it was his defence before the particular court and not before this court. Therefore, I did not find any force in the aforesaid contention raised by the Ld (learned) Advocate for the A-10 (Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi),” concludes the section on Mujawar’s allegations.
