MUMBAI: In the 2008 Malegaon blast case, partly allowing a plea by accused BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, the special trial court on Thursday said that before calling a witness, the prosecution must assess the relevance of doing so.
The court also said the prosecution is not bound to examine all cited witnesses and they can drop them to avoid multiplicity or plurality. "It is the discretion of the prosecution to tender the witnesses to prove its case," the court said.
The court further said it will not interfere with the exercise of discretion unless or perhaps if it is shown that the prosecution has been influenced by some oblique motive. The court said that undoubtedly the prosecution is not at liberty to choose its witnesses as they must be fair to the court and to the truth. "It can be directed to the NIA that before calling witnesses, assessment must be done pertaining to its relevance in order to save time and to avoid repetition," the court said.
Thakur in her plea urged the court to direct the prosecution to examine relevant witnesses and not prolong the matter without reasonable cause. Last week, Thakur's lawyer had submitted that the prosecution has called witnesses without application of mind and without assessing if those witnesses are required or not. It was further submitted that about 20 witnesses who were summoned were dropped saying that they are not relevant. It was also alleged that on the day of hearing, NIA would furnish messages or emails about the witness's unavailability.
The defence also referred to the summoning of an official from a Madhya Pradesh jail where now discharged accused Lokesh Sharma was lodged.
The NIA, though, submitted that it was making the best endeavour to keep witnesses present on each date as per schedule. It was further submitted that it was erroneous to infer that witnesses who are not relevant were being called.
The court said that it had observed that a lot of time, even after service of summons as per schedule, witnesses were not appearing and in such instances, warrants have been issued to secure their presence.
The court said that witnesses cannot be dropped because it was not relevant to the accused and that it was erroneous to infer that NIA unnecessarily secured the presence of witnesses to delay the trial.
Six people had died in the September 29, 2008, blast.
The prosecution opposed the plea and submitted that all efforts were being made to expedite the trial and that it was being conducted on a day-to-day basis.
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