News Analysis India

Tag: Prasad Shrikant Purohit

  • Malegaon blast: Purohit tells HC he is Army’s ‘unsung hero’, seeks speedy hearing on sanction issue

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, told the Bombay High Court Monday that he was “an unsung” hero of the Indian Army, who had suffered much during nearly nine years he spent in prison as an undertrial before being released on bail.

    Senior advocate Shrikant Shivade, who appeared for Purohit, urged a bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar to direct the special NIA court in the city to decide his grievance on the issue of prior sanction for prosecution at the earliest.

    Through a bunch of pleas filed in the HC, Purohit has sought that all charges against him in the case be dropped.

    He has also maintained that the alleged acts of conspiracy committed by him were in discharge of his duties as an officer of the Army, and therefore, the probe agency NIA should have obtained prior sanction of the central government to prosecute him.

    There exist previous orders of the HC and the Supreme Court saying that Purohit’s grievance on the issue of sanction will be considered by the NIA court at the time of trial.

    However, on Monday, Shivade told the HC that since trial in the case had already begun, the NIA court must be directed to decide the issue of sanction now instead of waiting till the conclusion of the trial.

    He said there were 500-odd witnesses in the case and only 181 of them had been examined before the NIA court so far.

    The trial, therefore, will take a long while to conclude, Shivade told the HC. “I have spent nine years in jail and have suffered a lot. Though I have been reinstated in service, this is an exception since, I have a good record,” Shivade said on behalf of Purohit.

    “I am an unsung hero of the Indian Army. Let the trial court decide on the issue of sanction now,” he said.

    NIA counsel Sandesh Patil, however, opposed Shivade’s submissions. He said charges in the case had been framed and trial had already begun. “Evidence is being led. Let him (Purohit) wait for his turn,” Patil told the HC.

    Purohit has maintained that while he has been charged by the NIA under anti-terrorism laws, by meeting with other accused persons and participating in conspiracy meetings related to the case, he had merely been collecting information and passing it on to the Army. Purohit was arrested in the case in 2009 and granted bail by the SC in 2017.

    Six people were killed and 100 others injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town of Nashik district on September 29, 2008.

    As per the NIA, the motorbike belonged to Purohit’s co-accused and BJP Lok Sabha MP Pragya Singh Thakur, who has denied the charge in the past. The HC will continue hearing the arguments in the case later this month.

  • Malegaon blast case: Bombay High Court asks Prasad Shrikant Purohit about conspiracy meet

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked 2008 Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit if he had any documents to show he attended alleged conspiracy meetings for the blast as part of his official duty for the Army.

    A bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale asked Purohit about a meeting that he had attended on January 26, 2008.

    As per the National Investigation Agency (NIA), this meeting was organised by a group called Abhinav Bharat and the conspiracy for the blast was hatched here.

    Six people were killed and over 100 injured in the blast that took place near a mosque in Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

    “The meeting that you attended on 26, where is the reference? Where is the reference that it was part of the official duty?” the bench asked.

    The bench had asked a similar question to Purohit on the last hearing on February 3 too.

    The court was hearing a plea filed by Purohit in HC last year seeking dropping of all charges against him.

    He has maintained before HC that in attending the conspiracy meetings for the blast, he was discharging his duties, collecting intelligence for the Army.

    His counsels Neela Gokhale and Shrikant Shivade have argued in all past hearings that by meeting other accused persons and participating in conspiracy meetings, Purohit had merely been collecting information and passing it on to the Army.

    In his plea, Purohit has said, since he was working for the Army, the NIA should have obtained a prior sanction before prosecuting him.

    On Tuesday, the HC suggested Purohit seek recourse before the trial court.

    Shivade, however, argued that if at the end of the trial in the blast case, the lower court was to hold that his prosecution had indeed been without sanction, then why must he go through the trial at all.

    Shivade also sought the court’s permission to bring Purohit before the HC bench.

    The bench said it could agree to the request if Purohit “maintained decorum”.

    HC will continue hearing the arguments in the case on February 24.