2008 Malegaon blasts case: NIA court to frame charges against Lt Col Purohit on Tuesday

The special NIA court in will be framing charges against 2008 Malegaon Blasts case accused Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit on Tuesday. Rejecting Purohit's plea to defer the framing of charges, the trial court said that the charges are ready and will be framed on Tuesday itself.

Earlier, the Bombay High Court on Monday refused to stay framing of charges by the trial court against Purohit and other accused in the Malegaon blast case. 

The Bombay HC, however, agreed to hear a petition filed by Purohit challenging his prosecution under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The court fixed November 21 as the date of hearing and directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) counsel Sandesh Patil to file a reply to the accused's plea by then.

HC noted that in the past, both the Supreme Court and the Bombay HC had passed orders directing the trial court to expedite the hearing in the case. The trial in a criminal case commences after charges are framed.

Six persons were killed and over a 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon on September 29, 2008. Besides Purohit, the other accused in the case are Pragya Singh Thakur, Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi. 

All the accused will face trial under the UAPA since as the special NIA court had earlier this month rejected their pleas on the applicability of the anti-terror law against them.

On December 27 last year, the special NIA court had dismissed the pleas filed by Purohit, Thakur and the others seeking that they be discharged from the case.

At the time, the special court had dropped stringent charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the accused, but had said they will face charges under the UAPA and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including murder and criminal conspiracy.

Purohit, however, has argued through his counsel Shrikant Shivade that he cannot be prosecuted in the case since the sanction granted by the government to prosecute him was “wrong in law”. A prior government sanction for Purohit’s prosecution was required since he was a serving army officer at the time of his arrest.