Photocopies not to be used as evidence in Malegaon case

Mumbai: The Bombay high court Wednesday stayed a 2017 special court order permitting the use of photocopies of statements of witnesses and confessions of the accused as secondary evidence in the 2008 Malegaon blasts’ case.

In an interim order, the court said that the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court should not have passed the order that was bad in law. The bench also noted that it was the duty of the National Investigation Agency, the prosecuting agency in the case, to point out the mistake to the court in permitting the use of unverified photocopies as secondary evidence.

A bench of Justices A.S. Oka and A.S. Gadkari was hearing an appeal filed by Sameer Kulkarni, a co-accused in the case, challenging the 2017 special court order which permitted the use of photocopies of statements of witnesses and confessions of the accused as secondary evidence in the case.

The bench said, “We have told you (NIA) on two previous occasions that you should have withdrawn your application (seeking permission for using the photocopies as evidence) and instead, made a fresh application before the special court bringing to its notice your mistake and clarifying that you did not ascertain whether the said photocopies were copies of certified original records.”

On Wednesday, the bench reiterated that the use of photocopies without any verification was bad in law. “This court is prima facie of the opinion that the use of the said photocopies as secondary evidence should not have been allowed. We, therefore, stay the impugned order,” the bench said.