Three months on, prosecutor Rohini Salian reveals NIA officer who asked her to 'go soft'

More than three months after special public prosecutor Rohini Salian alleged that she was pressurised to go soft on the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, she has revealed the name of the officer who asked her to do so, according to this report in The Indian Express. The Indian Express reported that Salian, in her affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court, said SP in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Suhas Warke had pressurised her and told her not to pursue the 2008 blast case. [caption id=“attachment_2466810” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image courtesy: YouTube screengrab[/caption] A case related to contempt proceedings against the NIA for ’tending to hamper the judicial process’ is being heard in the High Court currently. Salian had made the revelations in June this year, saying at the time ‘an officer’ had given her the message asking her to go soft in the case, in which right-wing Hindu extremists are alleged to be involved. The NIA official had also told her that there were orders from higher-ups for another prosecutor to be appointed in the case, she was reported to have said. However, last month, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the NIA and the home ministry, denied the allegations in the Supreme Court, another  Indian Express report said. Salian’s statement in an affidavit filed before a court comes even as a special NIA court rejected the bail applications of four accused in the case, including prime accused Lt Col Prasad Purohit, as reported by Mumbai Mirror. The accused had alleged a ‘deep rooted conspiracy’ to implicate them, the report says. Warke, a 2000 batch IPS officer, was appointed as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in the NIA by the Union Home Ministry in March this year. The investigation in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case had led to a new look at several other terror cases, including the 2006 Malegaon blasts, the Ajmer blasts, the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad and the Samjhauta Express blast.