Mumbai: One of the 39 witnesses who turned hostile in the Malegaon blast trial claimed he was detained for several days and forced to implicate five RSS members, including now UP CM Yogi Adityanath. Reacting to the testimony, the NIA judge has expressed concern about methods of torture and illegal detention adopted by ATS officers and raised questions about credibility of evidence collected. The judgment detailing reasons for acquitting the seven accused notes “almost all those witnesses… deposed they had not given their statements voluntarily, but… under coercion by the officers of ATS.”Special judge A K Lahoti said while no formal complaints were filed by such witnesses against ATS, this alone was not sufficient to dismiss their testimony as false. “It is a well-acknowledged aspect of human behaviour that the decision to lodge complaints is influenced by various subjective factors, including personal courage, perception of risk, psychological trauma and apprehension of future retaliation,” he said. He also pointed out that allegations of “misconduct, torture, illegal detention have been levelled exclusively against ATS officers” and none have been made against any officer of NIA,” which raised “serious concern” about credibility of evidence collected by ATS officers.Another critical aspect of the judgment addresses prosecution’s failure to examine key “material witnesses.” Statements of key witnesses “have not sufficiently supported the case of the prosecuting agency,” the judge said. While acknowledging that prosecutors have discretion to select witnesses, the judge said if “relevant witnesses are not examined or kept back or dropped,” the court may draw an “adverse inference” against the prosecution.