NIA court rejects Lt Col Purohit's plea to access untruncated documents

A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday rejected Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit's application to access untruncated documents on grounds of this being his tactics and purported attempts 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.

Earlier in the day, the Bombay High Court had denied relief to Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case and refused to stay trial court proceedings. Furthermore, the court adjourned the case for the next two weeks.

The Supreme Court on Monday had asked the Bombay High Court to hear Lieutenant Colonel Purohit's plea challenging the validity of the prosecution sanction for his trial under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

A Special NIA Court had earlier commenced a trial against Purohit and six other accused in the case.

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 Lieutenant Colonel 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.