Prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit moved the Supreme Court on Friday, three days after the Bombay High Court rejected his bail plea. The apex court bench, led by Chief Justice JS Khehar, did not fix a date for hearing and told Purohit’s lawyer Neela Gokhle that it would take up the matter in due course of time, reported ANI.
On April 25, the high court had denied relief to Purohit but granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for the lack of “incriminating or objectionable material” against her. They were both arrested in 2008 on charges of plotting the explosions carried out by radical Hindutva group Abhinav Bharat. The two had moved the Bombay High Court after a special court, which hears terror cases investigated by the NIA, quashed their bail pleas in 2016.
Two explosions on September 29, 2008, in Malegaon, Maharashtra, had killed at least six people and injured several others. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had filed a chargesheet against 14 right-wing extremists, including Purohit and Thakur, in the case. The two were later arrested. Purohit, a former military intelligence officer, was charged with conspiring to carry out the blasts and procuring materials to create the explosives used in the incident. Another prime accused in the case, Ram Kalsangra, is still absconding.
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