Malegaon blast case: Special NIA court rejects Lt Col Purohit's plea

Mumbai: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai on Saturday rejected 2008 Malegaon blast case accused Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit's petition challenging the validity of the prosecution sanction for his trial under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). 

Special NIA court judge Vinod Padalkar rejected his petition after hearing the arguments of Purohit and other accused in the case. 

The court has set October 26 as the next date of hearing in the case. The Bombay High Court had last month rejected Purohit's plea to restrain the trial court from framing charges against him and other accused in the case. 

The NIA court was set to frame the charges against him and others, but it was deferred after the accused raised objections over the validity of the prosecution sanction. 

A prior sanction for Purohit's prosecution was required since he was a serving Army officer at the time. The sanction was issued on January 17, 2009 by additional chief secretary of the Maharashtra Home department.

Six people were killed and nearly 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon, a town in Maharashtra's Nashik district, on September 29, 2008. 

On December 27, 2017, the special NIA court dismissed the pleas filed by Purohit, his co-accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, and six others seeking discharge from the case. 

The court, however, gave them partial relief by dropping all charges against them under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).