Malegaon blasts: Bombay High Court grants bail to Sadhvi Pragya, Lt Col Purohit to stay in jail

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya, who is a prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who is one of the key accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case.

Bombay High Court, however, denied bail to Lt Col Prasad Purohit, a co-accused in the case.

Sadhvi Pragya, who was arrested nearly nine years back, was granted bail on a surety of Rs 500,000 and two surities of same amount after the National Investigation Agency had granted a 'clean chit' to her in May 2016.

She has also been ordered to submit her passport to the NIA and appear on dates in trial court. Meanwhile, the victims of the Malegaon blasts have decided to challenge the bail given to Sadhvi Pragya in Supreme Court.

Sadhvi Pragya and Col. Purohit had earlier filed pleas in the Bombay High Court seeking bail.  

Earlier in March, the High Court had reserved its order on the bail plea filed by Purohit.

The duo had moved the High Court after the special court that deals with terror cases probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) rejected their bail pleas.

Earlier, while filing for bail, Purohit had claimed that Abhinav Bharat Trust, that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed was used to procure the weapons and explosives used for the blast, was formed keeping senior army officers in the loop and was to be registered as a political party.

The chargesheet filed by the NIA this year had said that Purohit flouted the service rules by forming the outfit in 2006, despite being an army man. The investigating agency said Purohit and the other accused collected funds for the outfit, which were then used to buy weapons.

In his bail plea, Purohit had reportedly said that he was acting in discharge of his duty to gather more intelligence.

"The circumstances show Abhinav Bharat was to become a political party and even a registration form for the same was found through the sources of the accused," read the bail plea.

The state ATS had chargesheeted 12 alleged 'Hindu extremists', including Lt. Col. Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, in the case.

The serial bomb blasts outside a cemetery near Hamidia mosque at Malegaon near Nashik on September 8, 2006, claimed 37 lives and injured over 100 people. 

With ANI input