2008 Malegaon blast: After Lt Col Purohit, co-accused claims he was falsely implicated due to political pressure

Upadhyay, a retired Indian Army major, was arrested along with Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit by the Maharashtra ATS for his alleged role in the case. He was, however, released on bail in 2017. The trial in the case is on before a special NIA court in Mumbai and is in the last stages.

“I am an innocent accused falsely framed up in this case by Anti Terrorism Squad Mumbai due to political pressure exerted upon them by the UPA governments at Centre & State to somehow justify their Hindu Terror theory,” Upadhyay claimed in his statement submitted before the special court.

Upadhyay also claimed that ATS not only tortured him physically by beating him ‘mercilessly,’ but harassed him mentally in ‘illegal custody’ and ‘tortured ruthlessly’ and asked him to confess to a crime he had not committed. He added that his house owner was threatened for sheltering a ‘terrorist’ by renting out his bungalow. “I was threatened that my wife would be paraded naked, my unmarried daughter would be raped, son’s jaw would be broken,” Upadhyay added.

Upadhyay claimed that when he “flatly refused to bow down to their wishes to give a confession or falsely name any other person or co-accused”, the ATS arrested him on Diwali night and produced him before a judicial magistrate in Nashik on a holiday. “I spoke to the learned magistrate, showed him torture marks on my body, agreed to co-operate with the investigation and also to Narco Analysis Tests to prove my innocence,” he claimed.

He said polygraph and narco analysis reports ‘exonerated’ him of any involvement in the case and despite the said reports giving him a ‘clean chit ‘, ATS did not produce the said reports in the court. He added that there was not even an ‘iota of evidence’ against him in the chargesheets or statements of the witnesses.

“I have suffered immense pain physically, mentally, financially, and socially and my family life has been ruined. The culprits who framed me in this false case should be proceeded against as per law. I further pray that I be honourably acquitted of all charges in the interest of justice,” he urged the court.

Last week, co-accused Lt Col Purohit claimed that a ‘fabricated’ investigation was carried out in the case under the orders of then Maharashtra ATS chief late Hemant Karkare, retired IPS officer Param Bir Singh, and others to ‘suit the political requirements’ of the incumbent government.

Six people were killed and more than 100 injured on September 29, 2008, when an explosive device placed on a motorbike went off near a mosque at Malegaon in Maharashtra’s Nashik district.