The Bombay High Court today admitted a plea filed by Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, challenging previous judgements of the HC and a special trial court that had rejected his discharge from the case.
On December 18, 2017, the High Court had refused to quash a government sanction that permitted Purohit’s prosecution in the blast case. Earlier on December 27, a special NIA court had dismissed his plea to discharge him from the case.
Purohit then approached the Supreme Court, and based on the apex court’s directions, approached the HC again earlier this year arguing that the sanction granted by the government to prosecute him in the case, was wrong in law. A prior sanction for Purohit’s prosecution was required since he was a serving Army officer at the time.
Six persons were killed and over a 100 were injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon in Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.