Jolt to Sadhvi Pragya: NIA refuses to disclose details of witnesses

Mumbai: The National Investigative Agency NIA vehemently opposed the appeal filed by the key accused in 2008 Malegaon blast Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and other saffron accused seeking details of witnesses. Filing its reply on Thursday to an application seeking documents related to the case, the NIA stated that details of witnesses cannot be disclosed to the accused.

Special public prosecutor of National Investigative Agency told the court that the plea of the accused should be rejected as revealing the names of the witnesses may affect the case.

The application was filed by Colonel Shrikant Purohit earlier this week which stated that documents supplied to him by the prosecution did not have names of witnesses and most of it were in truncated form.

The NIA filed the reply on Thursday before special judge VS Padalkar. The next hearing will be on November 19, during which the court will discuss whether the accused is entitled to get documents in ‘untruncated’ form.

Lt Col Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and 5 other accused were booked in terror charges in 2008 Malegaon blast case.