The Bombay High Court on Monday rejected a petition filed by Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit seeking discharge as an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast that killed six and injured 101 others.
A division bench of justices A.S. Gadkari and P.D. Naik was hearing an appeal filed by Mr. Purohit after the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court rejected his discharge application. He is seeking a discharge in the case on the grounds that proper sanction was taken to prosecute him under Section 197 (prosecution of Judges and public servants) Code of Criminal Procedure. Mr. Purohit had contended as an army officer he was discharging his official duty by gathering intelligence.
The court said, “If the contention of the Appellant that, he was directed to perform official duty to gather information regarding ‘Abhinav Bharat’ is to be accepted then the question remains to be answered that, why he did not avert the bomb blast in the civilian locality of Malegaon that caused loss of life of six innocent persons and severe to grievous injuries to about 100 persons. Even otherwise indulging into any activity of a bomb explosion causing death of six persons is not an act done by the Appellant in his official duty.”
The chargesheet filed by NIA states, “Mr. Purohit had floated the Abhinav Bharat organization in the year 2006 in spite of being a serving Commissioned Officer of the Armed Forces of India which is against the service’s rules.” The central agency relied upon the statement of a prosecution witness that said, “Mr. Purohit gave him three weapons and ammunition to be kept in his house for a month sometime in 2006. The description of the weapons was also dictated to him. He saw RDX in the house of Mr. Purohit in a green sack at Devlali and that Mr. Purohit confessed to him (witness) about having supplied RDX for Samjhauta Express Blast.”
Mr. Purohit has been charged with murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony on him, under relevant sections of the Arms Act, the Indian Explosive Substances Act, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
So far 296 witnesses have been examined in the trial and 25 of them have been declared hostile. On September 29, 2008, a bomb exploded in Malegaon, a city in the Nashik district in Maharashtra killing six and injuring over 100. The other accused are retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.
Malegaon is a city in the Nashik district in Maharashtra where a bomb exploded on September 28 killing six and injuring over 100.
