Mumbai: The Bombay high court Wednesday refused to grant a stay on the 2008 Malegaon blast case and adjourned hearing on Col Purohit’s application for two weeks. Col Purohit has challenged his prosecution under the UAPA.
A division bench of Justice R.M. Savant and Justice V.K. Jadhav deferred hearing on the petition filed by Col Purohit for two weeks, and also refused to grant a stay on the trial pending his petition.
Col Purohit has claimed that he could not have been prosecuted under the UAPA because he was a serving army officer at the time and a prior government sanction was required to prosecute him under this law, which had not been obtained.
Since the HC refused to grant a stay on the trial, the trial court Judge Vinod Padalkar framed charges against Purohit and other accused under various sections of the IPC and UAPA.
The accused have been charged with allegedly conspiring and carrying out the blast with the help of absconding accused Sandip Dange and Ramji Kalsangra. According to the prosecution, the accused had parked a LML freedom motorbike loaded with RDX explosives at Bhikku chowk in front of a mosque. The bomb exploded on September 29, 2008, killing six people and injuring 100 others.
