Malegaon Blast case: Supreme Court rejects plea by Lt. Colonel Prasad Purohit seeking discharge

The Supreme Court on March 27 dismissed an appeal filed by Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit seeking his discharge in the 2008 Malegaon blast case [Lt Col Prasad Purohit vs National Investigation Agency and anr]. .A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Manoj Misra refused to interfere with a Bombay High Court ruling which had dismissed Purohit's plea.The top court, however, clarified that the trial court should not be influenced by observations in the High Court's order." ... the Special Leave Petition is not entertained. However, as we are informed that the trial against the petitioner is continuing, the observation made in the impugned order for the purpose of examining the issue of sanction should not prejudice either the prosecution or the defence, in the proceedings before the trial court. With the above order, the Special Leave Petition stands dismissed," the Court said.Purohit, a serving army officer, is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, after it was discovered he had attended meetings of a group called Abhinav Bharat where the conspiracy for the blasts were hatched..Purohit initially moved a lower court seeking discharge on the ground that the Central government had not taken proper sanction to prosecute a serving army officer.The same came to be rejected after which he approached the High Court.He applied for discharge on two grounds:- That he had been attending the meetings after informing his superiors about the same. He claimed to have been on duty while doing the same.- That since he was a serving officer, the prosecution agency was required to obtain sanction from the requisite authorities, and they had obtained an improper sanction.A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik ruled on January 2 that Purohit was not on duty when he was attending meetings of Abhinav Bharat and rejected the plea Purohit then filed the present appeal before the top court. .Before the top court, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi with advocates K Parameshwar, Anand Dilip Landge, Viral Babar, and Malhar Pramod Kadam appeared for Lt Col Purohit. Advocates Gaurav Agrawal, Sarim Naved, Shahid Nadeem, Kritika Agarwal, and Mujahid Ahmed appeared for the respondents.[Read Order]