‘I am Army’s unsung hero’: Malegaon blast accused Purohit seeks remand of discharge plea to lower court

Lt Col Prasad Purohit, an accused in the Malegaon 2008 blast case, asked for his case to be remanded back to the trial court in the Bombay High Court on Monday.

Advocate Sandesh Patil, appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), opposed the plea in the high court.

Patil, while addressing a division bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice N J Jamadar said, "There is robust reasoning and a detailed manner in which the judge has recorded. So, any order cannot just be set aside and remanded. A fresh application may be filed - there is no objection to that. But without a proper hearing, the order cannot just be set aside.”

Earlier, Purohit had filed a plea before the trial court in which he had raised the issue of proper sanction for his prosecution not being taken by the investigators. The trial court had dismissed the plea stating that the issue would be decided at the end of trial.

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It was against that order that Purohit had approached the high court. However, during the course of the hearings over the past few months, there were a few new documents that Purohit had managed to obtain. He claimed these documents showed that since he was in the military intelligence, he had been attending conspiratorial meetings of the 2008 blast as part of his duty.

Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivde, hence, asked for the case to be remanded back to trial court. He also asked that the lower court, where already more than 180 witnesses have deposed, hear the issue of discharge before proceeding any further in the trial. Shivde said that Purohit has already suffered a lot.

"I cultivated reliable sources within a short time. My interventions seriously set back the terrorists. I developed an intelligence network. In the face of fire, I showed exceptional courage in the line of duty. I instilled high morale in the troops I led. I am an unsung hero of the Indian Army. I was protecting the prime minister," said Shivde on behalf of Purohit.

He argued that the material before the court was not sufficient for sanction. "So let the trial court decide and pass an order without waiting till the conclusion of the trial," said Shivde.

However, Patil opposed Shivde's submissions on the basis that the earlier order would have to be set aside before the issue is remanded back to trial court.

Maintaining that the lower court was reasoned, Patil argued that the high court would have to be satisfied on the merits of the case if the lower court order was to be set aside.

Shivde responded that he was not asking for the lower court order to be set aside. However, he emphasised that it was wrong to decide the issue of sanction at the end of the trial.

The high court will hear the case further at the end of this month.

MALEGAON BLAST, 2008

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.

Purohit spend nearly nine years in prison as an under-trial from 2009 to 2017 before being released on bail.

(With inputs from PTI)

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