Malegaon blast victims write to CJ, seek extension for NIA judge

The victims of the 2008 Malegaon blast case have written to the chief justice and registrar of Bombay high court requesting them to extend the tenure of  special NIA judge PR Sitre, who has been presiding over the trial since August 2020.

The letter said Judge P R Sitre was being transferred in the coming vacation as per the annual general transfers.

"By a notification dated August 29, 2020 he took charge and presided over the case. He heard the blast matter on a day to day basis, keeping a vigil against the cheap tactics of some of the accused persons to derail the trial. All the accused are on bail hence trial is being prolonged," the letter said.

It said Judge Sitre was with "utmost dignity and impartiality" upholding the principles of natural justice and fair trial, and had presided over the case in a "fair and independent manner", giving the accused, the victims and the prosecutor no opportunity to complain.

Judge Sitre is fully conversant with the record of the case, having examined over 100 witnesses in the last one year and four months, the letter stated, adding that a new presiding officer who will be posted would take further time to come to "grips of the record of the case which runs into thousands and thousands of pages".

Judge PR Sitre is already privy to the complexity of the matter and the proceedings, and 246 witnesses have been examined and not many are left to be examined from here on, the letter added.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured on September 29, 2008, after an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Nashik's Malegaon town, located about 200 kilometres from Mumbai.

The accused in the case include  Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Lok Sabha MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Shudakar Diwedi, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni, all of whom are out on bail.