Five months ago Lt. Col. Purohit was granted bail by the Supreme Court after 9 years in jail.
In 2008, two bombs fitted on a motorcycle exploded, killing seven people and injuring nearly 100 in Maharashtra's Malegaon. Initial investigations brought a hardline pro-Hindu group, Abhinav Bharat, under the scanner and led to several arrests. Among them were Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Army officer Lt Col Purohit who were arrested that year, and charged with plotting the blasts.
The investigation was initially conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad led by its chief Hemant Karkare. Mr Karkare was killed in the terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008. The probe was then handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2011. In Dec 2017, the NIA court dropped the charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against eight accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case.
Purohit was represented in his bail hearing at the Supreme Court by Salve who reportedly charges Rs. 30 lakhs a day. The same Mr. Salve had 'earlier represented the State during the hearing of the Malegaon blasts case before the Bombay High Court during an appeal against the trial court’s decision to revoke stringent MCOCA against the blasts accused.' Thus Mr. Salve was able to argue FOR retaining MCOCA against Mr. Purohit in one hearing, and for his bail in the next hearing, he said that 'Lieutenant Colonel Purohit was allegedly caught in the political crossfire and was falsely implicated in the case'.
How very rubber-man like and flexible of Mr. Salve ! It is not known who paid Mr. Salve for appearing for Lt. Col Purohit (Salve did recently fight Jadhav's case for the Govt. of India and has high approval ratings from the top echelons of the Govt.). In any case, Purohit appears to have very long arms himself that reached all the way to Israel and the King of Nepal as per the chargesheet filed in his case.
It is strange that charges as severe as diverting RDX from the army, planning a Govt. in exile in Israel, writing a constitution based on a Hindu Rashtra, procuring arms and training for waging war, still were finally not thought worthy of MCOCA !
But sedition charges could be slapped on students and a professor merely for protesting the hanging of Afzal Guru !
In 2008, two bombs fitted on a motorcycle exploded, killing seven people and injuring nearly 100 in Maharashtra's Malegaon. Initial investigations brought a hardline pro-Hindu group, Abhinav Bharat, under the scanner and led to several arrests. Among them were Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Army officer Lt Col Purohit who were arrested that year, and charged with plotting the blasts.
The investigation was initially conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad led by its chief Hemant Karkare. Mr Karkare was killed in the terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008. The probe was then handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2011. In Dec 2017, the NIA court dropped the charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against eight accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case.
Purohit was represented in his bail hearing at the Supreme Court by Salve who reportedly charges Rs. 30 lakhs a day. The same Mr. Salve had 'earlier represented the State during the hearing of the Malegaon blasts case before the Bombay High Court during an appeal against the trial court’s decision to revoke stringent MCOCA against the blasts accused.' Thus Mr. Salve was able to argue FOR retaining MCOCA against Mr. Purohit in one hearing, and for his bail in the next hearing, he said that 'Lieutenant Colonel Purohit was allegedly caught in the political crossfire and was falsely implicated in the case'.
How very rubber-man like and flexible of Mr. Salve ! It is not known who paid Mr. Salve for appearing for Lt. Col Purohit (Salve did recently fight Jadhav's case for the Govt. of India and has high approval ratings from the top echelons of the Govt.). In any case, Purohit appears to have very long arms himself that reached all the way to Israel and the King of Nepal as per the chargesheet filed in his case.
It is strange that charges as severe as diverting RDX from the army, planning a Govt. in exile in Israel, writing a constitution based on a Hindu Rashtra, procuring arms and training for waging war, still were finally not thought worthy of MCOCA !
But sedition charges could be slapped on students and a professor merely for protesting the hanging of Afzal Guru !
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