After Lt Col Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, challenged a subordinate court order that denied him bail; the Bombay High Court passed it’s first order regarding the petition on Friday. On Friday, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) closed the discussion by claiming that there are enough evidences to prove that Purohit played a major role in conspiring and executing the blasts.
Purhoit was arrested in November 2008 for allegedly procuring RDX to carry out the blast and hatching the conspiracy. The NIA had filed charge sheet against eight people in connection with Samjhauta blast case which includes Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Asimanand, Late Sunil Joshi alias Sunilji, Ramchandra Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange (both absconding), Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan, Amit and Rajender Choudhary. The case pertains to the criminal conspiracy which resulted in bomb blasts in the Attari Express (Samjhauta) train near Panipat, Haryana on February 18, 2007.
This blast and the consequent fire in the train coaches resulted in the loss of 68 lives and injuries to 12 train passengers, including women and children travelling in the train.
NIA’s counsel Sandesh Patil pointed out that both NIA’s charge-sheet and the one filed by the Maharashtra ATS established that Purohit had “participated in conspiracy meetings, given provocative speeches and agreed to get explosives for the act”.
He, however, said that though the two chargesheets contained “contradictory findings” when it comes to some other accused, the NIA “did not want the ATS chargesheet completely obliterated”, and that the court must “consider both chargesheets”. Patil as reported by Indian Express.
