New Delhi: Army Chief General V K Singh
on Friday said there was no communalism in the service and
officers such as Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Shrikant
Purohit were only an "aberration".
"Lt Col Purohit is an aberration. He was detached from
the troops and command authorities for very long. So,
somewhere he has gone wrong. Otherwise in the Army, there is
no communalism," he said when asked how the force was handling
such cases.
The Army chief was talking to reporters on the
sidelines of the release of a book `Siege of Warwan`.
Army has already completed a Court of Inquiry against
Purohit, a Military Intelligence officer, after he was
arrested by the Maharashtra ATS in connection with the blast
in November 2008.
After the probe was over in April last year, the CoI,
held under the Lucknow-based Central Command, recommended
Purohit`s dismissal from the Army after finding him
"blameworthy" on several counts.
An infantry officer, Purohit was shifted to the
Military Intelligence wing and was doing a course in Arabic
language when his name surfaced in the case.
After the case came to light, Army had started
reviewing its internal mechanisms and processes to guard
against such incidents in future.
PTI
