Malegaon blasts: Col Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya cases have a long way to go

The arrests of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt. Col Shrikant Purohit had made headlines several years back. Both these people were arrested in connection with the Malegaon blasts of 2008.

While Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had maintained that she was framed, Lt Col Purohit has made it clear that he was trying to infiltrate into a militant organization but the police went on to charge him with terrorism.

It has been six and half years since both were arrested and many would argue that there is an inordinate delay in the manner their cases are being handled. While Lt. Col Purohit's states that no chargesheet has been filed against him as yet, Sadhvi has challenged the slapping of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) against her.

It has been alleged by the prosecution that Sadhvi has taken part in a conspiracy which led to the attack at Malegaon in the year 2008. In the case of Purohit it was stated that he had procured 60 kilograms of RDX and supplied to the other accused. He has also been accused of floating a trust with an intention of aiding subversive activites.

Case status of Sadhvi Pragya Singh

After the Malegaon blasts of 2008, the police had claimed that it was a Muslim outfit which had carried out the attack. However the Maharashtra ATS under Hemant Karkare went ahead and arrested several Hindus including Sadhvi and Purohit claiming that it was an act carried out by them.

Sadhvi Pragya Singh has made several pleas on health grounds and also quoted botched up investigations to support her case. Her advocate Ganesh Sovani informed oneindia that the provisions of the MCOCA had been slapped against her.

At first she moved the Bombay High Court challenging the provisions of MCOCA. After that was rejected around three years back she approached the Supreme Court. The matter is still pending before the Supreme Court and her legal team says that it would come up soon.

In the case of Sadhvi her legal team has first decided to challenge the provisions of MCOCA and only then move ahead with the rest of the case. These are stringent provisions which have been wrongly slapped and it needs to be challenged her legal team also states.

Case status of Lt Col Purohit

In the case of Purohit there have been many ups and downs. In the year 2011, the Bombay High Court had rejected his bail plea which led him to appealing before the Supreme Court. The bail hearing has commenced after a long gap.

Purohit claims that he had been wrongly implicated in the case. He states that he was undercover trying to expose
several Muslim organizations. He was assigned that job by his superiors, but then the Maharashtra ATS went ahead and falsely implicated him.

The case against Purohit was later handed over to the National Investigating Agency and he claims that no chargesheet had been filed. The investigating agencies however claim that he had been running a trust under the name of Abhinav Bharat and this was not known to his superiors in the army.

The NIA has however opposed his bail stating that he had not kept his superiors in the loop. It is also stated that this trust was being run with an intent of taking revenge against the Muslims.