Rohini Salian names NIA officer who told her to ‘go soft’ against Malegaon blasts accused - Is this an example of the subversion of justice by constitutionally appointed authorities?
Former Special Prosecutor Rohini Salian has disclosed that
it was Suhas Warke, a Superintendent of Police in the National Investigation
Agency (NIA), who asked her to “go soft” against the accused in the 2008
Malegaon blasts case after the NDA came to power.
More than three months after
Salian’s interview to The Indian Express, the first disclosure on the name of
the agency officer has been made in an affidavit she filed in a matter relating
to initiation of contempt proceedings against NIA for “tending to hamper the
judicial process,” resulting in “weakening of the prosecution’s case”. “I am
told that a criminal contempt petition is filed before this Honb’le court and
in administration of justice and as an officer of the court, I am disclosing
the name of the NIA officer, who had tried to interfere with the delivery of
the administration of justice, as a messenger. His name is Suhas Warke, SP,
NIA, Mumbai branch,” Salian said in her affidavit.
The affidavit, which was filed before the Bombay High Court,
has now been submitted in the Supreme Court along with a petition asking it to
pay heed to revelations made in the affidavit and issue appropriate orders
against the NIA in the interest of justice. In the affidavit, Salian has
referred to her interview to The Indian Express, published on June 25. “I
reiterate and affirm that whatever I have stated in my interview to the
newspaper Indian Express… is true and correct and I reiterate the same as it is
specifically stated therein,” she said, adding that the incident happened in
the second or third week of June 2014. In the interview, Salian had said that
she was under pressure from the NIA to “go soft” in the case.
Soon after the NDA government came to power last year, she
said she got a call from one of the officers of the NIA — the agency is
investigating terror cases involving alleged Hindu extremists — asking to come
over to speak with her. “He didn’t want to talk over the phone. He came and
said to me that there is a message that I should go soft,” Salian had told The
Indian Express. She was subsequently de-notified by the NIA from its panel of
lawyers but the Home Ministry is still to take a final call on her removal. But
she had not disclosed the name of the NIA officer.
Salian’s affidavit has been submitted in the Supreme Court
by Mumbai resident Dr Sanjay Lakhe Patil who had filed a petition in the High
Court seeking contempt action against the NIA. However, the plea, filed through
advocate Chirag M Shroff, complained that the High Court is yet to take
cognisance of the matter, and that it is getting deferred. Patil has sought the
court’s permission to be heard in the matter pending already before the top
court in which notices have been issued to the NIA and Maharashtra government.
Acting on two PILs, a bench led by Justice J Chelameswar had sought replies
from them.
In its response, NIA said Salian “falsely” alleged that she
had been asked to “go soft”, and termed the accusations as “unwarranted and
baseless”. Confirming that she had filed the affidavit naming the NIA officer,
Salian told The Indian Express Monday that she had done so because this had
been asked of her by the then Chief Justice of the High Court — Chief Justice
Mohit Shah retired last month. “I got a call from the counsel representing
Patil who had apparently filed the contempt of court petition and he said that
the Chief Justice had asked me if I could name the NIA man. I felt I could not
say no to the Chief Justice. Hence, I wrote the name in the notarised affidavit
and gave it to him in a sealed envelope,” Salian said. She said she had no
intention of making the name public as she considered him merely a messenger.
The Malegaon blast on September 29, 2008 claimed four lives
and injured 79 while another blast at the same time in Modasa in Gujarat killed
one. Investigations in the case pointed to alleged Hindu extremists based in
Indore, as first reported by The Indian Express on October 23, 2010. Of 14
arrested accused persons, four were granted bail between 2011 and 2013 when
Salian led the NIA’s case in the Bombay High Court.
see also
Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti
Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism in India
Rationalist under threat of arrest for exposing the “miracle”
India's god laws fail the test of reason
India's new theocracy
Voice of rationality silenced by two bullets, shot point-blank
The Broken Middle - my essay on the 30th anniversary of 1984
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
The Abolition of truth - For the Hindi version of this essay click here: सत्य की हत्या
Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism in India
Rationalist under threat of arrest for exposing the “miracle”
India's god laws fail the test of reason
India's new theocracy
Voice of rationality silenced by two bullets, shot point-blank
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
The Abolition of truth - For the Hindi version of this essay click here: सत्य की हत्या
RSS tradition of manufacturing facts to suit their ideology
Communist Party of India's Homage to Gandhiji October 2, 1947 // Communist Party's Appeal to the People of Pakistan August 15, 1947
V.D. Savarkar and Gandhi’s murder
Madhu Limaye's (senior socialist leader) observations on the RSS (1979)
A Hard Rain Falling (on private armies and political violence in India) (EPW, July 2012)
THE DELHI DECLARATION OF JANUARY 18, 1948
Communist Party of India's Homage to Gandhiji October 2, 1947 // Communist Party's Appeal to the People of Pakistan August 15, 1947
V.D. Savarkar and Gandhi’s murder
Madhu Limaye's (senior socialist leader) observations on the RSS (1979)
A Hard Rain Falling (on private armies and political violence in India) (EPW, July 2012)
THE DELHI DECLARATION OF JANUARY 18, 1948
