When Maharashtra ATS planted RDX to frame Lt Col Purohit

The NIA cited the testimony of an Army major and a subedar to claim that Bagde broke into Chaturvedi's house to allegedly deposit traces of RDX.

When the Maharashtra ATS claimed that it was Lt Colonel Srikant Purohit who supplied the RDX in the Malegaon blasts case, it took everyone by surprise. However the NIA made a disclosure that was even more stunning when it said that it was an officer from the ATS who had planted the RDX to frame Purohit.

Lt Col Purohit was released on bail this week. He was released after spending nine long years in jail.

The NIA had said in its supplementary chargesheet that Purohit and eight others should be tried as accused in the blasts conspiracy case, but recommended that the charges brought against them under Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA ) be dropped and they be tried under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) instead.

The NIA said that it was the ATS under Hemant Karkare which planted evidence to frame Purohit. The NIA further said that an ATS officer Shekhar Bagde, left traces of RDX in the house of another accused, retired Army personnel Sudhakar Chaturvedi, in Deolali.

The NIA cited the testimony of an Army major and a subedar to claim that Bagde broke into Chaturvedi's house to allegedly deposit traces of RDX. The Army major and subedar told a Court of Inquiry hearing Puroit's appeal that Bagde pleaded with them not to report him. Two days later, however, an ATS team raided the house and picked up the RDX traces similar to the one used in Malegaon blasts by using a cotton swab. "This recovery itself becomes suspicious," the NIA told the court.

OneIndia News