The first serving Army official to be accused of being involved in an act of terror, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit was granted bail Monday by the Supreme Court, nine years after he was arrested.
Purohit’s arrest had shocked the nation in 2008 as a high-ranking army intelligence officer was being accused of being part of the conspiracy in the Malegaon bomb blast. Seven people were killed when a crude bomb tied to a motorbike exploded in Bhiku Chowk, a Muslim-dominated area of Malegaon, on 29 September 2008.
Purohit, who hails from Maharashtra, had joined the Army when he was just 22. He became a distinguished Maratha Light Infantry Officer before joining Military Intelligence.
From 2002 to 2005 he was involved in major counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir. He was transferred to MI-25 or the Intelligence Field Security Unit of the army.
Purohit was posted in Deolali in Maharashtra, where he is suspected to have come in contact with retired Army officer Major Ramesh Upadhyay, who is the alleged founder of Hindu extremist group Abhinav Bharat. Purohit, it is alleged, also became a member of this group.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad investigated the attack and said Hindu extremist groups were involved. This led to the arrests of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Swami Dayanand Pandey. Upadhyay and Purohit were arrested subsequently.
Purohit was accused of supplying RDX for the bomb, but he has maintained that he was only a mole for the Army and had infiltrated Abhinav Bharat under instructions from Military Intelligence. He argued that the Army had falsely implicated him and he was being framed. Purohit, Pandey, and Thakur were prosecuted under the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA).
Purohit argued in the Supreme Court that he has been languishing in jail for nine years without a proper chargesheet and that if Sadhvi Pragya Thakur has been granted bail, so should he.