Malegaon blast case: Lt Col Purohit infiltrated into ISI, SIMI camps, says his lawyer

Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case had not just infiltrated a right wing Hindu group but as an officer of military intelligence he had even managed to get into Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the now banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) camps in Kashmir.

Pleading over Colonel Purohit bail application in Bombay High Court, his counsel Shrikant Shivde said, "It was only on the orders of his superiors that Purohit infiltrated into right wing group - Abhinav Bharat."

Shivde told the court that Purohit, during his posting in Uri, Kashmir in 2003, had managed to sneak into hideouts of ISI and SIMI. However, terrorists got to know about his real identity. Purohit managed to escape moments before the hideout was blow up by terrorists, he said.

Eight people were killed and nearly 100 injured in a bomb blast in Maharashtra's Malegaon town on September 29, 2008. Following investigations, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) claimed that the blasts were carried out by Abhinav Bharat and that Purohit played an active role in planning the blasts.

"He had informed his superiors about Abhinav Bharat meetings and after attending them he had reported it to his seniors as well," Shivde told the Division Bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi.

Apart from alleging that ATS had planted the RDX to fabricate Purohit, Shivde said that Army had sent documents from the enquiry done by it to the special NIA court which had earlier rejected his bail.

Shivde's argument for bail for Purohot will continue on Thursday (February 9).

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