From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Bombay High Court to decide expeditiously the plea of Lt Col Prasad Srikant Purohit to quash his prosecution in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case since the sanction granted for it by the government was wrong in law.
A Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Vikram Nath requested the High Court “to take the petition of Purohit and decide the same expeditiously in accordance with law.” It noted that as of now 246 witnesses have been examined and that way the hearing may go on for long time.
The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court had dismissed his plea for discharge and the High Court had on December 18, 2017 refused to quash a government sanction permitting his prosecution. The prior sanction for prosecution was mandatory since Purohit was a serving Army officer at that time.
Six people were killed and over 100 injured after an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon in north Maharashtra, about 200 kilometres from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008. All the seven accused in the case are currently out on bail.
