Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said he has asked the Army to provide lt Colonel Prasad Purohit with all the documents he has sought to prove his innocence in the Malegaon blasts case in 2008, with paragraphs inimical to national security blanked out.
Maintaining that the matter was in court and he cannot decide on the merit of the case, Parrikar said he has told the Army to give all information sought by Purohit, one of the main accused in the Malegaon blasts case.
“Except for words of people and names of countries, whatever document he wants, except when directly it impacts security of the nation or it involves names of some other officers, that can be blacked out, the information has to be given to him,” Parrikar told reporters here on the sidelines of the Naval Commanders’ Conference.
Purohit had earlier this month written to Parrikar requesting restoration of his honour by way of rank.
In his letter dated April 4, Purohit claimed he was falsely implicated in the case and was behind the bars for more than seven years now. Purohit claimed he had infiltrated groups like SIMI and Naxals as a military intelligence operative and added that he had shared every detail of his operations with his seniors.
This is not the first time that Purohit has written to Parrikar. In November 2015, he had written to him requesting for copies of the Court of Inquiry against him by the Army. He finally got copies of the enquiry proceedings following court’s intervention.