A former officer from the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad made serious accusations after a special court acquitted all seven people who had been charged in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

The officer, Mehboob Mujawar, said he had been directed to arrest senior leaders, including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, in order to support a narrative of 'saffron terror'.

Mujawar said, "I was instructed by Param Bir Singh, and his seniors instructed me to arrest these people -- Ram Kalsangra, Sandip Dange, Dilip Patidar, and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. It was out of my ability to arrest a person like Mohan Bhagwat, who is very powerful in Maharashtra."

He also alleged that the officer in charge of the investigation carried out what he described as a "stage-managed investigation."

The Malegaon blast took place nearly 17 years ago and recently saw a key development when a special court in Mumbai acquitted all seven accused, including Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, saying that there was "no reliable and cogent evidence" to support the charges made by the prosecution.

At first, the ATS had claimed that the bombing had been planned by people associated with the right-wing group Abhinav Bharat and had said that several high-profile individuals were involved. But after the National Investigation Agency took over the probe, it found serious flaws in how the ATS had conducted the investigation, which led to the removal of charges filed under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The trial began in 2018 and went through several difficulties, including the fact that more than 300 witnesses called by the prosecution either gave conflicting statements or did not help the case. The NIA court observed that there was no "cogent and reliable evidence" against the accused and noted that "terrorism has no religion" and that convictions should not be based on "mere suspicion."

The former officer further claimed, "They insisted that I prepare a charge sheet indicating dead persons as living. When I refused, the then IPS officer, Param Bir Singh, falsely implicated me in a case. I objected because I didn't want to do false work, and consequently, fake cases were registered against me."

After the court's verdict, an inquiry was launched against an ATS officer who had been accused of using forged medical certificates during the course of the investigation, which raised more questions about the credibility of the ATS's work.

Mujawar supported the court's decision to acquit all the accused, including BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, saying it showed how procedural errors and weak evidence had damaged the prosecution's case.