The Bombay High Court on Monday rejected the plea of accused Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, seeking his discharge from the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, after observing that he was not discharging his official duty when he was attending meetings of Abhinav Bharat where conspiracy for the blasts were hatched.
In a development that came exactly a month after two other accused withdrew their applications seeking discharge from the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, a HC bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik rejected Lt Col Purohit’s discharge plea, challenging the lower court’s order rejecting his discharge application on the ground that the Centre had not taken proper sanction to prosecute a serving Army officer.
“We have observed that he was not on duty. And that he was not assigned to attend meetings where conspiracy to cause bomb blast,” the HC bench noted, while rejecting Lt Col Purohit’s plea seeking discharge from the case.
Lt Col Purohit had sought to make a case on the twin grounds that he had been attending Abhinav Bharat’s meetings after informing his superiors about the same, while the fact is he was not on duty then, and that since he was a serving officer, the prosecution agency had not sought proper sanction from the competent authorities.
In 2018, Sadhvi Pragya, Kulkarni and Purohit had moved the HC seeking discharge in the case after it was rejected by the special NIA court in 2017.
However, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the petitions of Sadvi Pragya and Kulkarni had not come up for hearing until now. However, in Purohit’s, his lawyers had already argued his discharge plea and the order was reserved in the case.
On December 1, 2022, Sadhvi Pragya and Kulkarni withdrew their discharge pleas the HC wondered as to how their applications could be considered since the trial had already begun and more than 200 witnesses had been examined.
Purohit’s lawyers had also told the court that since the sanctioning authority would be cross-examined by them in the trial court, it would not press for it to be heard now by the high court.
Sadhvi Pragya, Kulkarni and Kulkarni are three of the seven accused who are being tried by Special Court under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and various other sections of the IPC for their alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
It may be recalled that an improvised explosive kept under the seat of a LML Freedom motor-bicycle had exploded between Bhikku Chowk and Anjuman Chowk, near Noorani Masjid, at Malegaon in north Maharashtra, on the night of September 29, 2008, leaving six persons dead and injuring 101 others.