The recently submitted final chargesheet by the NIA in the 2008 Malegaon blasts has taken everyone by surprise. The NIA has sought death sentences for all the prime accused including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Colonel Purohit and Swami Aseemanand among others. This is a complete U-turn from its 2016 interim chargesheet wherein it had said that it could not find sufficient credible evidence to prosecute these individuals and resultantly they got bail and Pragya Thakur even became a Loksabha MP from the BJP. The agency has submitted that looking into the huge delay in the witnesses turning hostile their changed testimony cannot be considered reliable and therefore no benefit may be accorded to the accused. This has raised many serious concerns about our politics and institutions. Firstly the credibility of our premier investigative agency is undermined when it changes its position on a fact that was always evident. The delay in change of statements was known in 2016 itself and why did the agency have to make such diabolically opposite inferences from the fact and that too after 9 long years. Adding to it is its submission against granting any leniency to the accused till the final judgement is delivered. The agency had given the same accused a long rope for all these years and they even avoided court hearings on health grounds while playing cricket in the meantime. As such reversal is inexplicable professionally, speculations rise about political influences, we even had the public prosecutor Rahul Kulkarni withdrawing from the case blaming the NIA of sabotaging the investigation and special prosecutor Rohini Salian alleging pressure to go slow. This reversal therefore may hint at an internal tussle either within the organization or within the RSS-BJP establishment. Second grave question is for the BJP about the urgency of nominating an accused for Loksabha candidacy. What credentials did they verify before nominating her, to the extent that she had become their poster girl for the 2019 general elections. The unapologetic support for her candidacy was a strike on the body conscience of our democracy. The next question is on the media who used the NIA’s stand to vilify opposition of fabricating a bogey of saffron terror. No independent check on the story was done and the RSS narrative was parroted ad nauseam. This poisoned with malice our polity and forever de legitimized our media Infront of much of our country. To the extent that the martyrdom of the valiant Hemant karkare was also mocked at. Lastly the question of the response of our armed forces on the radicalization of its members. It has to step in and take corrective measures.
