LT Colonel Prasad Purohit, an accused in the September 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, on Tuesday filed an application before a special court in Mumbai requesting that the ongoing trial be held in-camera. Purohit claimed that the media was conducting debates and discussions on the trial proceedings which the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court had prohibited in 2019.

In his application, Purohit said that the case should remain confined to the courtroom in the interest of justice and should not be allowed to be hijacked by “opinion-makers and anti-national opportunists”. In 2019, the NIA had filed a similar application before the court seeking the trial to be held in-camera and for the media to be prohibited from reporting. The application was opposed at that time by journalists.