Congress demands court-monitored probe in Malegaon blast case

NEW DELHI: Dubbing it as "undeclared Emergency", Congress today demanded the removal of NIA DG and launched a sharp attack on NDA government over remarks of Rohini Salian, Special Public Prosecutor in 2008 Malegaon blasts case, that she was under pressure from NIA to go soft in the case.

Party spokesperson Ajay Maken demanded the probe by National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the Malegaon case should be monitored by the Supreme Court or High Court henceforth, as Congress has "no faith" in the ongoing investigations by the agency under the Home Ministry.

"It is a very serious matter. NIA Director General (Sharad Kumar) should be immediately removed because he is responsible for it. The Supreme Court or the High Court should monitor the NIA investigation directly.

"We no longer have the faith in the probe in the case being carried by NIA under Government of India or Home Ministry," Maken said.

He also referred to the death of Mumbai cop Hemant Karkare during Mumbai terror strike in 2011 noting that the officer was also probing the Malegaon case.

Another Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza alleged that the lawyer in the Malegaon blast case investigation has been asked to take a soft stand and the work of NIA officials reveal the same.

"This shows a form of undeclared Emergency," she said.

Stirring a controversy, the Special Public Prosecutor in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case in which some Hindu extremists were accused, today alleged that the NIA had asked her to go soft on the accused after the BJP-led Government assumed power a year ago.

"An NIA officer called me up and said he wanted to meet me. He then met me some time last year and asked me to go soft on the accused in this case," Rohini Salian, the SPP in the case, claimed.

She said the officer had apparently got "instructions from higher-ups to convey this to her," Salian told reporters.

Salian, however, declined to name the officer who met her.