Malegaon blast case: SC grants bail to Lt Colonel Purohit who was behind bars since 2008

The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to 2008 Malegaon blast accused Lt Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Colonel Purohit is behind bars for the last nine years.

The Apex Court said "we set aside order of Bombay High court" while granting conditional bail to Malegaon blast accused Lt Colonel Purohit.

A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre passed the order on the plea.

Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court reserved its verdict on a plea of Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit seeking interim bail.

Purohit has moved the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court's order dismissing his bail plea.

The NIA had filed its reply in Purohit's case, saying there was ample evidence against him, but no evidence against Thakur.

The top court had on May 5 also sought a response from the NIA and the Maharashtra government on the plea of Purohit seeking bail.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of north Maharashtra.

A special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) court had earlier ruled that the Anti-Terrorist Squad had wrongly applied this law against Thakur, Purohit and nine others.

The 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because of a sizeable Muslim population there. It had named Thakur, Purohit and co-accused, Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators.

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.