Six persons were killed and over a 100 were injured when an explosion occurred at Malegaon in Maharashtra on September 29, 2008. The case was first investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, which had slapped charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.
In its charge sheet filed in May 2016, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) gave a clean chit to Ms. Thakur and dropped MCOCA charges against Lt. Col. Purohit. The NIA said there were several shortcomings in the evidence against him, but he could still be prosecuted.
Abinav Bharat
The NIA said that Lt. Col. Purohit had floated Abhinav Bharat in 2006 while he was a serving Commissioned Officer, which is against services rules. He mentioned his profession as farming while registering the organisation.
“In a closed-door secret meeting at Bhopal in April 2008, Purohit decided to take revenge against Muslims by exploding a bomb at Malegaon, a Muslim-dominated area. In August 2008, he attended the meeting at Ujjain with the absconding accused Ramchandra Kalsangra and discussed the procurement of RDX as directed by the accused Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi,” the charge sheet said.
The NIA said it was a Maharashtra ATS official who had planted RDX samples at Lt. Col. Purohit’s house. The 70-kg RDX, which the Maharashtra ATS had claimed were in Lt. Col. Purohit’s possession, have all been accounted for as per Army records, the agency said.
NIA said Purohit collected huge funds for Abhinav Bharat and used it to procure weapons and explosives for unlawful activities. In February 2008, in a secret meeting at Faridabad, Purohit proposed a separate constitution for Hindu Rashtra with separate flag [Bhagwa (saffron) Flag]. “He read over the constitution of Abhinav Bharat which he had prepared, discussed the formation of Central Hindu Government [Aryawart] against the Indian Government and put forth the idea of forming this Governmentin exile in Israel and Thailand."
Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said on Monday that Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit got bail after a “long struggle for nine years”, and said that it was his right.
Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, who served as Home Minister during the UPA government said, “It was a professional job done by the police.”
Union Home Minister Kiren Rijiju said there was “no conspiracy” behind Lt. Col. Purohit getting bail and it was a judicial process.
In 2014, soon after the NDA government came to power, NIA’s special public prosecutor Rohini Salian had alleged that she was pressured by NIA officials to water down the case where several right wing leaders were involved.
Following the news of bail, she told presspersons in Mumbai, “God save the nation.”
