Mumbai: Bombay High Court on Monday slammed Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit’s plea challenging the validity of prosecution sanction for his trial under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Purohit is an accused in 2008 Malegaon blasts.
The High Court has said that Purohit’s appeal is not maintainable as it is an interlocutory order while permitting the applicant to convert appeal into a writ petition.
In November 2018, a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had rejected Purohit’s application to access untruncated documents, on grounds that it is an attempt by him to prolong the trial.
Col Purohit had asked for statements of all the witnesses from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the NIA as mentioned in the charge sheet.
On September 29, 2008, a bomb placed in a tiffin box tied to a motorcycle near a mosque in Malegaon exploded killing six people and injuring many. The court had framed charges against Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi, accusing them of a terror conspiracy, murder and other related offences.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]