2008 Malegaon blast: Supreme Court grants conditional bail to accused Lt Colonel Purohit

The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the Bombay High Court order and granted bail to Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon serial blast case.

A bench of Justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre passed an order on the plea. The court said that the bail has been granted subject to certain conditions.

Opposing Lieutenant Colonel Purohit's bail plea, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) had argued that the Bombay High court order should be upheld by the apex court.

Purohit's bail plea was earlier rejected by the Bombay High Court saying the charges against him were of a grave nature, after which he moved to the top court.

Senior lawyer Harish Salve, appearing for Purohit told the court that he did not want to be discharged from the case at present, but for the interest of justice, wants an interim bail.

Salve told the apex court that Lieutenant Colonel Purohit was allegedly caught in the political crossfire and was falsely implicated in the case.

Purohit, a former military intelligence officer, is one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts along with Sadhvi Pragya and others. Sadhvi Pragya has been granted relief in the case by the Bombay High Court.

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.

(With agency inputs)