THE AURANGABAD bench of the Bombay High Court has dismissed a plea by a former RSS worker, who had sought to be examined as a witness in the 2006 Nanded bomb blast case. Last month, a sessions court in Nanded had cleared all nine men facing trial of all charges in the case.
Yashwant Shinde had approached the sessions court in 2022 seeking directions to the CBI to examine him as a witness. Shinde had alleged that he was privy to the blast conspiracy and claimed to have attended a training camp in Sinhagad. He also claimed to know the main conspirators of the blast.
The sessions court in 2023 had rejected Shinde’s plea, questioning the delay in approaching the investigating agency for 16 years. Shinde had then filed a writ petition in the high court in 2023 seeking to be examined as a witness under Section 311 of the Criminal Procedure Code (power to summon material witness).
“…during the course of investigation, the petitioner (Shinde) has not made any effort to give his statement to the Investigating Officer from the day of registration of crime i.e., 06.04.2006 till filing of the application i.e., 29.08.2022 which filed after more than 16 years. Therefore, to my mind, the present petitioner has no locus to file an application under Section 311 of CrPC to implead himself as a witness,” Justice Y B Khobragade said in an order on February 26, made available on Monday.
The high court said that since the sessions court has acquitted all the accused, it does not find merit in allowing his plea. In January, while acquitting the accused, the Nanded court had said that the evidence was ‘totally untrustworthy’. The CBI had booked the men over a blast which took place at a residence in Nanded on April 6, 2006, causing two deaths.
The prosecution had claimed that the men had links with RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal, and the accused, including the two who died, were involved in assembling a bomb in preparation of conducting blasts to create rift between communities. The accused had claimed that it was an incident of negligence in storing firecrackers which led to the explosion and not a bomb blast.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com.
