Indian top court grants bail to colonel linked to Malegaon blast

An Indian colonel, who faces charges of involvement in the 2008 blast in the Muslim-majority Malegaon town in Nasik district of Maharashtra and was also linked to the  2007 Samjhauta Express terrorist attack, was granted bail by the India's top court on Monday.

Lt Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit has been in jail for the last nine years. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had opposed his bail in the last hearing, saying there was enough evidence of Purohit's role in the blast in which seven people were killed, The Indian Expressreported.

The Indian Supreme Court court had last week reserved its decision on an interim bail plea filed by Purohit.

His bail plea was earlier rejected by the Bombay High Court following which he approached the highest court. The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice R K Agrawal and A M Sapre, while granting bail, said, "We set aside order of Bombay High Court."

During the hearing, Purohit, who is being represented by senior lawyer Harish Salve, had said he had been caught in a "political crossfire" and languishing in jail for nine years without even charges being framed against him. Purohit accepted he had attended meetings of Abhinav Bharat, a right-wing organisation whose members were accused of conspiring in the Malegaon blast, but he had acted as an army officer and passed on the information to his senior officers about the group's activities.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for the NIA, said that although it has been found that Purohit had informed his seniors about the activities of Abhinav Bharat, there were some materials against him that could justify framing of charges against him.

A 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the target because of a sizeable Muslim population in the town.The charge sheet had named Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Lt Col Purohit and co-accused, Swami Dayan and Pandey as the key conspirators.

However, Thakur given clean chit by the NIA last year. It had alleged that it was Pandey who had instructed Purohit to arrange explosive RDX, while Thakur owned the motorcycle which was used in the blast.

The probe was handed over to the NIA in 2011 along with a several other blast cases involving right-wing extremists, including the 2007 Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif bombings.

Besides, the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad had claimed that Purohit was also involved with the 2007 Samjhauta Express terrorist attack that killed 42 Pakistanis visiting India.

Vikas Narain Rai, head of the team that probed the Samjhauta Express blasts, had accused the government of trying to give Colonel Purohit, Swami Aseema Nand and the other accused in the case a clean chit.

"Evidence is being erased, witnesses are being forced to turn hostile, documents are being fabricated to help people due to their Right wing linkages," Rai alleged. The colonel was accused of providing RDX for the Samjhauta Express attack too.

The NIA said last year that there was no proof against Purohit in the Samjhauta attack case.