2008 Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Shrikant Purohit out of jail after 9 yrs

Mumbai: Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit was released from the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday after being granted bail by the Supreme Court.

He was driven out of the prison in a car at around 10.45 am.

A team of Military Police and Quick Response Team of the Army escorted Purohit out of the jail.

Purohit was in jail for almost nine years for his alleged role in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

The Supreme Court had on Monday granted bail to Lt Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

While granting bail, the apex court said, "we set aside order of Bombay High court."

The apex court said the bail has been granted subject to certain conditions.

A bench of Justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre said they are setting aside the Bombay High Court order by which the bail was denied.

Lt Colonel Purohit's bail plea was earlier rejected by the Bombay High Court saying the charges against him were of a grave nature, after which he moved the top court.

The 4,000-page chargesheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because of a sizeable Muslim population there.

It had named Thakur, Purohit and co-accused, Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators.

However, Thakur was in 2016 given clean chit by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Sadhvi Pragya has been granted relief in the case by the Bombay High Court.

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