Malegaon blast accused Col Purohit dons Army uniform for first time after being granted bail

Mumbai: Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit donned the Army's uniform for the first time on Wednesday after being granted bail by the Supreme Court in 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case.

A Supreme Court bench of Justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre on August 21 had set aside an order of the Bombay High Court which had denied him bail.

However, the apex court had imposed certain restrictions while granting him relief after he spent eight years and eight months in jail.

Among the conditions imposed was that he would not leave India without prior permission of court and not directly or indirectly make any inducement to any witnesses.

The court, however, made it clear that the grant of bail to Purohit, shall be no ground for similar relief to other accused in the case and each plea for relief will be considered on its own merits.

He was released from the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai on August 23 after which he had reported to the liasoning unit of the Army's Southern Command.

A team of Military Police and Quick Response Team of the Army had come to take him.

Purohit, who was posted with an unit under Southern Command and was an officer from intelligence corp, was suspended from service soon after he was arrested in connection with the blast case in late 2008.

After the report of the Court of Inquiry (CoI), Purohit's salary and allowances were restricted to 25 percent of his total pay but it was increased to 75 percent following an order by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT).

Purohit had approached the AFT after the cut in his salary following report of the CoI.

Six people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a textile town in Nashik district of north Maharashtra. 

(With PTI inputs)