Malegaon blast case: NIA opposes Lt Col Purohit's bail application

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday opposed the bail application of accused Lieutenant-Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey in Malegaon 2008 blast.

The agency said in its reply, filed on Wednesday that it had sufficient evidence to prove Purohit's involvement in the blasts conspiracy and to justify invocation of stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against him. NIA in their application said that they have enough evidence against the accused who have filed for bail in the chargesheet. The application also stated that, the provisions of MCOCA are applicable to him and his confession recorded as per provisions of MCOCA can be used as evidence against him.

Purohit, pleading innocence, has also said in his bail plea that he is behind the bars without trial for the last seven years. Purohit had filed bail application on June 3 this year. In his application he said that he has links with blast. As a ground of bail he also cited his Army service and his study on organisations such as Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) to argue about his contribution to the country.

Twelve persons, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Purohit, were arrested for the blast at Malegaon town in Maharashtra on September 29, 2008, in which six persons died and 100 were injured.

As the case is on day to day basis, all the accused are produced in the court, Purohit during the hearing told court that till date he had not received any suspension order from army regarding his alleged suspension before the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in Delhi.

The Special MCOCA judge SD Tekale then said that, such applications can be allowed on exceptional humanitarian grounds, but no one should be given special permission and that the rules have to be followed.