Malegaon blast case: SC rejects discharge plea of Lt Col Purohit

The Supreme Court on March 27 dismissed an appeal filed by Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit seeking his discharge in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Manoj Misra refused to interfere with a Bombay High Court ruling which had dismissed Purohit’s plea.

The top court, however, clarified that the trial court should not be influenced by observations in the High Court’s order.

“ ... the Special Leave Petition is not entertained. However, as we are informed that the trial against the petitioner is continuing, the observation made in the impugned order for the purpose of examining the issue of sanction should not prejudice either the prosecution or the defence, in the proceedings before the trial court. With the above order, the Special Leave Petition stands dismissed,” the court said.

Purohit, a serving army officer, is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, after it was discovered, he had attended meetings of a group called Abhinav Bharat where the conspiracy for the blasts were hatched.

Meanwhile, a witness who is related to an absconding accused turned hostile in the 2008 Malegaon blast trial here on Wednesday.

He became the 31st prosecution witness to be declared hostile in the case in which BJP MP from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, is one of the key accused.

The witness, in his statement to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), had allegedly said that this absconding accused had met Pragya Thakur on multiple occasions.

Crucially, he had allegedly also told the probe agency that he had seen the absconding accused riding a motorcycle which purportedly belonged to Thakur. The probe agency had claimed that this motorbike was found at the blast site.

But during his deposition on Wednesday, the witness told the court that these statements were not true. Following which, the court declared him as hostile.

The court has examined 306 witnesses until now.