PUNE: On October 29, 2008, when Lt Col Purohit was doing a course in Arabic at Army Centre of Education at Panchmarhi, he came to know about a movement order to Delhi. Little did he know that he would be physically tortured by a fellow Army officer and other agencies (whom he trained) at a safe house in Khandala near Mumbai and declared as accused in Malegaon blast case.
Purohit’s arrest had shaken the nation as for the first time an Army officer was alleged to have masterminded a terror bomb blast. Purohit, a resident of Pune, was commissioned as Army officer in 1994 from Officers Training Academy, Chennai and joined 15 Maratha Light Infantry. After his stints in Gujarat, Pune, Karnataka, North East and Jammu & Kashmir (counter-intelligence unit), he was posted with 3 Det unit in Deolali in Nashik district.
Purohit is considered an ace intelligence officer for his performance in Kashmir for three years, wherein he had infiltrated terrorist groups.
Purohit claimed he had infiltrated Abhinav Bharat as part of a covert operation. The organisation wanted to establish a Hindu Rashtra (country) with separate constitution and flag, and take revenge for Islamic terrorism.
He was posted at Deolali from January 2005 to October 2007. After that he went to Army Education Corps Training College and Centre in Pachmarhi for studying Arabic language.
HOW WAS HE ARRESTED?
On October 24 at 11.30 pm Col RK Shrivastav conducted a meeting of all intelligence officers at Army Centre of Education (AEC Training College), Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh. All officers were asked to assemble at commandant’s office to meet Shrivastav who came from Delhi for an inquiry related to Malegaon blast.
Shrivastav and Purohit met for the first time in this meeting and the latter was interrogated till next day by the former about his alleged role in the blast.
On October 26, Shrivastav had dinner at Purohit’s house and asked his wife Aparna about his religious inclination and information in connection with blast. On October 29, Purohit was told by the Adjutant of AEC to accompany Shrivastav to Delhi to have an interaction with Military Intelligence at Integrated Headquarters of Army.
TORTURE IN KHANDALA
An official movement order was initially issued to Delhi which was later changed to Mumbai. Although as per army rules movement order was to be handed over to Purohit, Shrivastav didn’t follow the norms and took Purohit to Mumbai and handed him over to ATS. Purohit was taken to a civilian bungalow at Khandala and kept there for seven days. Purohit alleged torture during his “detention” by Shrivastav, Maharashtra ATS and Intelligence Bureau (IB).
According to the statuary complaint letter of Purohit (dated August 5, 2009) available with Sakal Times, Purohit mentioned, “The sequence of beating and brutal torture was intermittently on with Colonel Shrivastav abusing me about my mother, wife and sister. He kept on threatening me that if I don’t own up my involvement in the Malegaon bomb blast case, he would strip my mother, wife and sister and make them parade naked in front of me.”
Sakal Times contacted Shrivastav, , but he refused to comment.
The Ministry of Defence documents available with Sakal Times state that his whereabouts from October 29 to November 4 were undetectable.
It is important to note that Purohit was in the custody of Maharashtra ATS during this time, but Army doesn’t have any record of this.
According to the Army court of inquiry, the then Deputy Director, MI, Brigadier Rajkumar sent Shrivastav with clear instructions and mentions that Shrivastav was sent to act as a medium between Army, police and sister intelligence agencies and to maintain the dignity of Purohit, with no authority to interrogate or torture Purohit.
Then deputy DGMI during the Court of Inquiry said, ‘movement order’ to Mumbai was to be handed over to Purohit.
According to documents of Ministry of Defence submitted to the Bombay High Court, Purohit was handed over to ATS Mumbai on the basis of an FIR registered in Pune under sections of forgery and not under charges of Malegaon blast case. The Army had put a condition that the officer can be handed over only if there is an FIR against him.
As per the documents, a meeting was conducted between then director DGMI and director, Intelligence Bureau (IB) in which the latter recommended that the officer should be handed over to the police. However, it was recommended that the advice of judge advocate general should be taken regarding the handover of the officer to the police.
A document dated November 3, 2008 signed by JAG Major General Nilendra Kumar states, “The rationale for this is that only when an involvement of the officer becomes apparent then he should be handed over to police custody. It is further advisable that before the officer is handed over, his medical examination is carried out and also a decision is taken that he is not to be proceeded with under military law provisions.”
PUROHIT’S FRIEND FILES COMPLAINT
To fulfil the condition set by Army, ATS officials got Milind Yashwant Datey, an old friend of Purohit to file a case of forgery against him. The complaint mentions that Purohit had got him an arm licence on the basis of forged documents. Datey was contacted by this correspondent, but refused to comment.
PUROHIT KEPT SUPERIORS IN LOOP
According to the documents available with Sakal Times, Army Court of Inquiry indicates that Purohit informed his senior officers about his activities to gather intelligence.
Every piece of intelligence his unit generated was regularly sent up the chain of command to Army HQ. Is it conceivable that the then Army Chief Deepak Kapoor, defence minister AK Antony and the Congress party top brass (given that Sonia Gandhi as party president was pro-actively involved in governance) were completely unaware of these reports?
According to a document of 3 Det Southern Command liaison unit, C/0 56 APO, Southern Command of Indian Army and Army Headquarters were aware of Abhinav Bharat nine months before the Malegaon blast.
A letter (Det letter no 3073/LU/G) was dispatched by the 3 detachment of the Southern Command liaison unit, Deolali on January 16, 2008 with the heading ‘Hindu Org: Abhinav Bharat’. A letter regarding the same was also sent on October 24, 2008 after the Malegaon blast took place on September 29.
Ministry of Defence documents also corroborate that Purohit sent a handwritten letter to Major Bhagirath Dey, intelligence officer of Central Command liaison unit, Jabalpur to keep vigil on activities of Indresh Kumar of the RSS, Pragya Thakur and P Joshi in his area of responsibility.
PUROHIT’S SUPERIOR SPEAKS
Colonel (retd) Shailesh Raikar, who was immediate senior of Purohit said, “Purohit had always kept me in the loop about his activities as a military intelligence officer. He was an extremely good intelligence officer, who got framed. The charges on him of possessing 60 kg RDX are false and were dropped by NIA in its supplementary charge sheet. I am happy that he is out on bail.”
Raikar said that despite the controversial role of Shrivastav in the whole case, the Army never conducted a probe against him.
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
As per the Court of Inquiry, the only witness who testified against Purohit wrote a complaint to Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission and said he was pressurised and blackmailed by ATS to implicate Purohit.
Joshi complained that ATS officer Mohan Kulkarni took him to a room in the ATS office and threatened him with a loaded pistol in hand saying, “Do not dare to retract in front of the magistrate or else one bullet from this will be lodged in your brain.”
Statements of Major Khanzode and Subedar KK Pawar regarding RDX found at Chaturvedi’s house were recorded.
The statements by Subedar KK Pawar and Major Praveen Khanzode during the Army Court of Inquiry raises questions on the claims of ATS regarding the RDX found at the house of Sudhakar Chaturvedi at Deolali.
Khanzode and Pawar stated, they found API Shekhar Bagde of Maharashtra ATS doing suspicious activity inside the house of (co-accused) Sudhakar Chaturvedi on November 3, 2008 at Deolali. They saw him, however, after being caught by them Pawar got nervous and pleaded not to inform anybody about the incident as it can put his life and job in danger.
It is significant to note that Chaturvedi was a registered source of military intelligence and was on the army records submitted by Purohit. Chaturvedi was arrested by ATS on November 20, after which his house was raided on November 25, 2008. As per the charge sheet submitted by ATS, they found explosives at his house.
According to a letter sent by Purohit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016, “Arrest of 5th November was timed only after planting of RDX at Chaturvedi’s house by ATS on 3rd November 2008.”
MALEGAON BLAST CASE
- September 29, 2008: At least seven people are killed and over 70 injured in bomb blasts in a busy market area in Malegaon, a town in the Nashik district of Maharashtra.
- October 24, 2008: The police arrest three people in connection with the blast - Pragya Singh Thakur, Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra and Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu.
- November 4, 2008: Serving Army Official Lt Col Prasad Purohit was arrested for allegedly using RDX from seizures made during his tenure in Jammu and Kashmir in 2002-2004.
- January 20, 2009: Maharashtra cops file charge sheet in Malegaon blast case.
- July 31, 2009: The special court says, the MCOCA charges are not applicable and the case be tried by a regular Nashik court.
- July 07, 2010: The Bombay High Court reverses the order and upholds the charges under provisions of MCOCA.
- April 1, 2011: Investigation is transferred to NIA by the government.
- April 15, 2015: Supreme Court sends the case back to the lower court to re-consider the applicability of MCOCA.
- October 12, 2015: The court rejects the bail application of four accused, but held that MCOCA is applicable.
- October 14, 2016: The Bombay High Court heard Sadhvi Thakur’s plea for bail after she moved the HC following a negative response from the special court. The HC questioned Sadhvi Thakur’s imprisonment in the absence of a case against her.
- April 25, 2017: Bombay High Court grants bail to Pragya Thakur, rejects plea of Lt Col Purohit.
- August 17, 2017: The Supreme Court reserved its verdict on a plea of Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit seeking interim bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
- August 21, 2017: Supreme Court grants bail to accused Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit.
