Bombay HC adjourns hearing on Purohit's application seeking non truncated copies of witness statements

The Bombay High Court on Friday adjourned the hearing for two weeks on an application filed by Lt Col Prasad Purohit seeking non truncated copies of the statements of the witnesses from the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

A division bench of Justice Indrajit Mohanty and Justice AM Badar deferred the matter after the NIA sought two weeks' time to classify the statements sought by the petitioner.

The investigation agency submitted that the application can be allowed by the court and sought time to do proper application before an NIA trial court to classify which statements can be given completely non-truncated and which ones cannot.

Purohit is an accused in 2008 Malegaon blast case along with BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.

They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act, and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

As many as six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.