Image Source: Agencies

Aug 2, 2025: In his testimony to the special court in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, a witness claimed that the officers of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had tortured him and forced him to name Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as a suspect.
Special Judge A K Lahoti, who acquitted all seven of the case's accused on Thursday, stated that he could not rely on the witness's statement to the ATS because he had presented it to the court as voluntary. The ATS had questioned prosecution witness Milind Joshirao in October 2008 about the functioning of the right-wing group Abhinav Bharat, according to the court's over 1,000-page judgment, which was made available on Friday.
He was asked about a meeting that took place at the Raigad fort, where the accused allegedly took an oath to establish a distinct Hindu Rashtra. Joshirao testified in court that the ATS had treated him like an accused person. According to the court's statement, "They (ATS officers) were telling him to take the names of Yogi Adityanath, Asimanand Indresh Kumar, Devdhar, Pragya, and Kakaji in his statement." It also stated that the ATS officers had assured him that they would release him if he took their names.
The witness had refused, according to the court, so the then-Deputy Commissioner of Police Shrirao and Assistant Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh had threatened him out of fear of torture. It also said that the statement was written by ATS officers and that the witness had never said the things in it. The court stated, "Considering his testimony, it clearly indicates that the statement was involuntary."
The statement's involuntary nature casts doubt on its admissibility and authenticity, the court stated. The court ruled that a statement that is made involuntarily and without actual knowledge of the facts referred to in it is unreliable. Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur were among the seven people acquitted by the court. The court said that the prosecution didn't have enough solid evidence to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. In September 2008, a blast at Malegaon in the Nashik district resulted in six fatalities and 101 injuries.