Malegaon blast: SC extends stay on NIA questioning of Lt Colonel Purohit

Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit

The Supreme Court today stayed for three more weeks the Bombay High Court order allowing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to interrogate the 2008 Malegaon blast accused Lt Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi in its custody.

Purohit had approached the apex court against the high court’s October 20 order which had dismissed his petition against the decision of the trial court allowing NIA take him from the judicial custody to interrogate him.

However, the high court had stayed its order for eight weeks till December 20 to enable him to seek redressal before the apex court.

A bench comprising Justice HL Dattu and Justice CK Prasad sought responses from NIA, the Centre and Maharashtra government on the petition filed by Purohit challenging the High Court order which had upheld the order of the MCOCA court.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on January 4 after advocate UU Lalit and Neela Gokhale, appearing for Purohit, submitted the order allowing custodial interrogation was wrong as he was sent to judicial custody after the probe in the case was complete.

The bench also issued notices to NIA and others on Purohit’s seeking bail in the case.

Another accused in the case, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, also challenged the order of the High Court and the trial court allowing NIA to take him from judicial custody for his custodial interrogation.

Dwivedi’s case was argued by UR Lalit and Manoj Prasad and they also took the same ground as taken by Purohit to assail the orders of the High Court and the trial court.

-via DNA.

Who is Shrikant Purohit?

Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit

NDTV Correspondent.

His arrest two-and-a-half years ago shook the foundation of what has been one of India’s most secular institutions, the Indian Army. Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit was accused of conspiracy for terror and murder, the first time that an Armyman had been booked for a terror act.

An aberration, said Armymen. Others shook their heads in disbelief.

Neighbours said they knew Prasad Purohit as a soft-spoken man and superiors in the Army remembered a bright, hard-working recruit. In all conversations with people who knew or had interacted with Purohit, a common picture drawn was of a zealous young man with a marked patriotic fervor.

Purohit belongs to a cultured, middle-class Maharashtrian Brahmin family. The son of a bank officer, he was born in Pune and got his education from the Abhinav Vidyalaya and Garware College there.

In 1994, Purohit was commissioned into the Maratha Light Infantry after passing out of the Officers’ Training Academy at Chennai. He was serving in Jammu and Kashmir when he fell ill and was medically downgraded. At that time he was shifted to Military Intelligence.

Between 2002 and early 2005, Purohit was part of very important counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir as part of MI-25 or the Intelligence Field Security Unit. The MI-25 is tasked with looking at the enemy along the border.

It was when Purohit was posted at Deolali near Nashik in Maharashtra as a liaison unit officer when he allegedly came in contact with Ramesh Upadhyay, a retired Major. Upadhyay allegedly set up Abhinav Bharat, an extreme Hindutva group, that Purohit reportedly became a part of. Upadhyay too is in jail in the Malegaon case.

Purohit was later accused of having stolen 60 kg of RDX from the Army – some of which was allegedly used in the Malegaon blast. He was also charged with funding and training Hindu extremist groups like Abhinav Bharat, which was believed to have planned and executed the Malegaon blast.

The Lt Col was stationed at the Army Education Corps Training College and Centre at Panchmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, where he was learning Arabic, when the police allegedly found and decoded some SMSes that he sent out to Upadyay after the Malegaon blasts. He was interrogated, arrested in the Malegaon blast case in late 2008 and has been in jail since.

Six people died and many were injured in the September 29, 2008 in the communally-sensitive textile town of Malegaon. A bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded after Friday prayers had ended at a mosque.

Soon after Purohit’s arrest, the Army ordered a Court of Inquiry that later recommended Purohit’s dismissal from service. Last year, Purohit filed an appeal in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) seeking that the Court of Inquiry proceedings be quashed as the Army Act 180 had been violated. Purohit contended that some key witnesses had been examined without him being present or being given the chance of cross-examining them.

He says he has been victimized by military intelligence officials. In a statutory complaint sent to the then Army chief in 2009, Purohit had claimed that he was never involved with Hindu extremists and that he was falsely implicated by a fellow officer, illegally detained and tortured.

Purohit has drawn the AFT’s attention to the fact that almost a fortnight before his arrest, he had alerted Military Intelligence about the activities of Hindu radicals in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, on the basis of information he had gathered during his tenure Deolali.

-via NDTV

Army asked to reprobe against Colonel Purohit

Colonel Prasad Purohit

Gautam Datt.

The Army has been asked to conduct a fresh Court of Inquiry (CoI) against Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, one of the main accused in the Malegaon blast case, by the armed forces tribunal as it found irregularities in the initial probe.

The first CoI, completed in September last year, had recommended dismissal of Lieutenant Colonel Purohit from service for his alleged involvement in the terror plot.

Army had presented facts related to the CoI before the tribunal after which it was asked to reconvene the probe.

Justice S S Kulshreshtha of armed forces tribunal held that Army had examined some witnesses in absence of Purohit in violation of Army Rule 180 as the accused could not cross examine them.

“The Court of Inquiry suffers from the vice of irregularity…. It would be just and proper to direct the Army to further convene the CoI from the state when the statements of the witnesses were recorded on September 1, 2010 in absence of Purohit,” said the tribunal.

The findings of CoI were challenged by Purohit who cited violation of Army rule 180.

He had even complained that he was given extreme inhuman treatment and also named a Colonel R K Srivastava as the officer who subjected him to torture.

Purohit has been named as one of the main accused in the Malegaon case chargesheet along with swami Dayanand Pandey, sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and another Army officer major Ramesh Upadhyay.

They have been booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The CoI had found merit in the allegations on the basis of which his termination was recommended. T he Army had forwarded the recommendation to its legal branch for opinion.

Purohit, posted in Nasik, was alleged to be part of a group called Abhinav Bharat which carried out attack in Malegaon in 2006 killing seven persons. The CoI had also gone into Purohit’s links with other Army officers and whether they were aware about his activities.

-via Indian Express

‘RDX used in Malegaon blasts stolen from army’

Mateen Hafeez.

Residents of Malegaon said the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team reinvestigating the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts told them that their probe revealed that the RDX used in the blasts was stolen from the army. The army had earlier denied this charge.

On September 8, 2006, four RDX bombs planted on bicycles near a mosque at a cemetery in Mushawerat Chowk exploded, killing 31 people and injuring 297 others. Seven youths from Malegaon were arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on charges of designing and engineering the blasts. In December 2006 the probe was handed over to the CBI. In 2011, a special CBI team began reinvestigating the case after a member of Abhinav Bharat Swami Aseemanand’s confession claimed that the right-wing group was responsible for the Malegaon blast. The special CBI team conducted five meetings with the members of Organisations of All Muslim Sects (OAMS) in Malegaon and interacted with them.

“The CBI told us that the RDX used in the blasts was stolen from the army,” said a member of OAMS who was called by the CBI during the probe recently.

A CBI team member, M V Laad, said, “I neither know anything about it nor do I want to talk on this issue”. Another officer from the special CBI team said, “I have been to Malegaon but I cannot utter a single word.”

The prosecution, after arresting Lt Col Prasad Purohit in connection with the September 29, 2008 Malegaon blast in which seven people were killed, had told a court that the RDX used in the bomb was stolen from the army.

The CBI team had been asking the residents of Malegaon to assist them in collecting documentary evidence in the 2006 blast case. “They asked why only Malegaon was targeted when there are several other Muslim pockets as well in the state,” said advocate Irfana Hamdanai, who has been legally assisting the Malegaon youth, who have been arrested in the blast cases. “We have submitted documents to the CBI about a reconversion programme conducted by Aseemanand and associates between February 11 and 13, 2006,” said senior advocate S S Shaikh, also a member of OAMS.

Prior to the programme, Aseemanand’s group allegedly distributed pamphlets, calling for an end to conversion of Hindus to Islam and Christianity. Copies of the pamphlets have been submitted to the National Minority Commission, said residents. Copies were also given to the CBI three days ago. Soon after the Jamiatul Ulema, a socio-religious body, in Malegaon came to know about the reconversion plan, it alerted all the Muslims in around 150 villages near Malegaon and thwarted Aseemanand and his associates’ plan for a mass reconversion,” said advocate S S Shaikh, also a member of OAMS.

Aseemanand in his confession said that they targeted Malegaon since 80% of its population was Muslim.

“We want our boys to be released. We also want to show that the residents of Malegaon have nothing to do with the blasts but the Aseemanand group is responsible for it,” said advocate Nihal Ansari.

-via The Times of India

Colonel Purohit’s letter indicts Indresh, Sadhvi Pragya

Colonel Prasad Purohit

Aariz Chandra.

A letter written by Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Srikant Purohit to the army intelligence has revealed the involvement of senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the attack. The question is if Purohit was blowing the whistle on the right-wing extremism or it was a ploy to cover his own tracks.

“The blasts which took place in Gujarat and Malegaon are on the same day and same time using the same technique. I had learnt that it is Mr Indresh Kumar of the RSS, who is instrumental in carrying out these actions.”

This damning disclosure has been made by LT Col Purohit before the court of enquiry initiated against him after his arrest in the Malegaon blast case of 2008. Interestingly, Purohit had shared inputs with his seniors before his arrest in the case.

The hand-written letter dated October 15, 2008 submitted by Lt Col Purohit before the court of enquiry has been accessed by Headlines Today.

In his letter, the Lt Colonel not only accuses Indresh Kumar as conspirator in the Malegaon and Ajmer blasts, he also talks about Sadhvi Pragya’s alleged role in these blasts.

Another person is a lady Pradnya Singh, originally resident of Murana or Bhind.

The vehicle used in the Malegaon bomb blast was assembled from three different vehicles, one of which was ‘Bajaj Freedom’ registered in Pradnya Singh’s name.

It was utilized by Pracharak (Sunil) Joshi before he got killed and the vehicle’s registration is from Surat in Gujarat.

Lt Colonel Purohit’s letter was addressed to Major Bhagirath Dey, who at the time was posted as Intelligence officer at Jabalpur CCLU.

“I was undergoing a special Chinese refresher course at Panchmarhi Army Educational Corps Training college from July 14, 2008 to Oct 4, 2008. During that course I met Lt Col Purohit,” says Dey.

“Around the second week of October 2008, I received a call from Lt Col Purohit. He had some information which he said he could not share on telephone. On October 15, 2008 I sent Havaldar to meet Lt Col Purohit and he came back with a letter. The letter contained some vague information regarding one RSS leader Indresh Kumar and a lady called Pragya Singh,” Dey added.

RSS big wig Indresh Kumar’s name has already figured in the chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan ATS in the Ajmer blast case. Not just this, Indresh has also been questioned in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad. Will the anti-terrorism squad bother to question him on this damning disclosure by Col Purohit?

-via India Today