German Bakery case: scribe seeks fresh probe saying ATS

HC posted hearing on application on Oct 7

A journalist today moved the Bombay High Court seeking reinvestigation of the 2010 Pune German Bakery bomb blast case by an independent agency and also sought to intervene in the death confirmation petition of the lone convict Himayat Baig.

The high court has posted hearing on the application on October 7.

In his application filed today, the journalist Ashish Khetan alleged fabrication of evidence and tutoring of witnesses by the state Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS).

According to Khetan, he has the video recording of witnesses which he said cast a serious doubt on the entire trial, conviction of Baig and his sentencing.

A division bench of Justices P V Hardas and P N Deshmukh, however, opined that it would have to consider whether such intervening applications can be allowed in a confirmation petition.

The video recordings consist of conversations between Khetan and five prosecution witnesses, whose statements were relied on by the trial court.

"The witnesses stated that they were coerced and tutored into making deliberate false statements before the court with a malafide intention of securing conviction of the applicant.

"They have also stated that before they were to depose before the trial court, they were all kept separately for several days and tutored by the ATS personnel as to the nature of the recoveries and statements that were relied on to convict the accused in the trial," according to the application.

On February 13, 2010 a bomb exploded inside the bakery killing 17 persons, including five foreigners, and injuring 58 others. In April this year, the sessions court in Pune awarded death penalty to Baig observing that it was a rarest of rare case.