The wife of an accused in the 2015 case relating to two BJP and BYJM leaders in Bharuch has charged officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is handling the probe, with "threatening and mentally harassing" her.
Rukshana Banu, the wife of Nasir Khan Pathan, has made the allegations in an application submitted before a Special NIA Court here today.
Banu's application is likely to be taken up by the Court of Principal Judge P B Desai on April 23 when a hearing in the case is scheduled. Pathan is currently lodged in Surat's Lajpore jail.
In the plea, Banu said she and Pathan's brother-in-law Mohammad Arif were forced by NIA officials to go inside the jail on April 15 and 16 and asked to persuade Pathan to confess his alleged role in the crime and record his statement to this effect under CrPC Section 164 (which would make it admissible in court).
NIA officials, she claimed, said they will get Pathan out on bail if he makes confessional statement. In case he fails to do so, they will ensure he remains behind the bars for a long time.
Banu said the NIA officials' alleged action amounted to "threat and mental harassment".
The anti-terror agency had recently sought a three-day remand of Pathan and two other accused lodged in a Surat jail - Abdul Salim Ghanchi and Shoaib Zoaid. The trio are among 12 persons arrested in the case.
The Court had rejected the remand plea but allowed NIA officials to question them in the jail.
The central agency is probing the murder of two BJP leaders Shirish Bangali and Pragnesh Mistry in Bharuch, about 190km from here.
Bangali, former President of BJP Bharuch district, and Mistry, General Secretary of local unit of BJYM, the youth wing of the saffron outfit, were shot dead by assailants on November 2 last year.
NIA was handed over the case after a state police probe showed the duo was murdered to avenge communal riots in Mumbai and Gujarat in 1993 and 2002, respectively.
