Court points to holes in claims Purohit made

The special NIA court, which has rejected the bail plea filed by Malegaon blast accused Col Prasad Purohit, has raised doubts in its order on the claim made by the army officer that, when he had said in meetings that Abhinav Bharat Sanghatana (ABS) should eliminate people opposing its ideology, it was merely to win ABS’ trust and gather intelligence for the Army. The court said that there seemed to be no need for Purohit to say what he did at the meeting.

The judge noted that a witness has stated that, during the course of meetings with Purohit, the latter had informed him about ABS as well as about atrocities meted out to Hindus in Kashmir.

“This witness has also stated that the applicant was saying that Abhinav Bharat should not be developed merely as a political party, but should work as an organisation of extremists with the capacity to eliminate people opposing its ideology,” said the judge, adding that there are doubts about whether Purohit had said what he did in order to gather intelligence.

“This witness is a businessman at Pune... who had given funds of Rs 10 lakh to Abhinav Bharat,” he added.