2008 Malegaon blast case: Setback for Lt Col Purohit as SC declines to entertain petition

New Delhi, Sep 4: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain petition by Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, seeking for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into his abduction and torture by Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2008.

Purohit is an accused in the Malegaon Blast case who was granted conditional bail last by a top court after spending 9 years of jail.

In the petition, Purohit has urged that everything that he had said had been extrcted through him by force and torture. It may be noted that Purohit has been, since 2014, claiming that the 'so-called' confessions had been made under pressure created by the ATS. He has urged that the matter needs to be looked into under a court-monitored SIT so that 'he could get justice'.

While the matter was listed before the SC today, the judge refused to hear the matter on Tuesday. In August 2017, the Supreme Court granted bail to Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. He had told the court that he was caught in a political crossfire and languished in jail for nine years.

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

Although the case initially made headlines as the first case of saffron terrorism, it remained in public discourse also because of military's role in the matter after Purohit's arrest.