Mumbai: Sacked Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian named National Investigation Agency official who asked her to go soft on the accused in the Malegon blast case. In an affidavit filed with the Bombay High Court, Salian named Superintendent of Police Suhas Warkel and said that he allegedly pressured her to go slow against the accused in the case.
Upping the ante, the Congress has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove him
Salian had alleged that over the past one year, since “the new government came to power," she has been under pressure from the NIA to go “soft" in the case. She had said the officer had apparently got instructions from higher-ups to convey this to her, Salian said.
In the 2008 Malegaon blast case, 12 persons, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, were arrested. Of these 12, four are on bail.
The NIA took over the case in 2011 and later three more accused were arrested. However, they were granted bail in the case by default as chargesheet was not filed against them.
The Malegaon blast on September 29, 2008 killed four persons and injured another 79.
A lawyer of 25 years standing, Salian is also a prosecutor in Mulund bomb blast case (in which three cases are clubbed together) and 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case. She has also appeared in some high profile TADA cases and MCOCA cases.
Salian, who hails from Mangalore in Karnataka, has also served as the Chief Public Prosecutor in Mumbai for close to five years in the past. She was also the public prosecutor in the 1992 JJ hospital shoot out case in which underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's aide Subhash Thakur was sentenced to death.
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