Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday opposed Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit’s bail application in the Bombay high court.
The NIA said the applicant has stressed that there was no proper sanction for booking him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) but this aspect should be considered during trial.
According to the probe agency there is prima facie case against Purohit, hence he should not be granted bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Advocate Sandesh Patil, counsel of the NIA argued before the division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Dr Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi that the applicant has stressed on how procedure was allegedly not followed to impose sections of UAPA. “This is not the case where only sections of UAPA and MCOCA have been applied. There are serious offences like murder registered under section 302 of IPC and if proved the court can award death or life imprisonment to the accused,” Mr Patil said.
Mr Patil argued that the HC should only see if a prima facie case against the applicant is made out or not. “Since prima facie case is made out to try him for other serious offences too, bail should not be granted,” he said.
Purohit’s lawyer Shrikant Shivde had told the court that when UAPA was imposed on Purohit there was no independent authority to grant the sanction.
Mr Shivde said that only the Central government was authorised to grant sanction but in this case, the state has granted sanction.
According to him the power to grant such sanction was allotted to the state government three months after Purohit’s arrest, so the sanction cannot be considered as valid.
Mr Shivde also pointed out that as per record Intelligence Bureau officers and informers had also attended the Bhopal meetings, so it cannot be termed as a “conspiracy meeting”.
