SC grants bail to Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit in 2008 Malegaon blast case

On August 17, he told the court that he was caught in a “political crossfire” and languishing in jail for nine years.

Malegaon blast case accused Shrikant Purohit being taken to a session court in Mumbai. File

The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to Lt. Col. Shrikant Prasad Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

A Bench of Justices R.K. Agrawal and A.M. Sapre said they were setting aside the Bombay High Court order denying bail to him. The apex court said it has imposed certain conditions on Purohit while granting bail.

On August 17, Purohit told the apex court that he had been caught in a “political crossfire” and languishing in jail for nine years. He had moved the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court’s order dismissing his bail plea.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nashik district of north Maharashtra. A special MCOCA court had earlier ruled that the ATS had wrongly applied this law against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Purohit and nine others.

The 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because of a sizeable Muslim population there. It had named Thakur, Purohit and co-accused, Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators. However, Thakur was last year given clean chit by the NIA.