Senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam cites 'possible reasons' for SC granting bail to Lt. Colonel Purohit

After the Supreme Court granted bail to 2008 Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam on Monday said either the trial court couldn't frame charges against him or the two conflicting decisions taken by two different agencies helped his case.

Speaking to ANI, Nikam said the apex court must have been impasse by such types of discrepancy and therefore, the bail has been granted.

"I have not gone through the order of the Supreme Court. But the bail is the discretionary power of the court. I personally feel that there can be two possible reasons for granting bail to Mr. Purohit. Firstly, the trial was pending for about eight years and even the trial court couldn't frame charges against him. And secondly, two conflicting decisions and investigations were being run by two different agencies," he added.

"First investigation agency said that there is strong evidence, whereas the other investigating agency said that there is further discrepancy in the first investigation. I think the SC must have been impasse by such types of discrepancy and therefore the bail has been granted," he added.

He further said that Purohit would require to face the trial.

Meanwhile, reacting to the development, former ATS chief K.P. Raghuvanshi told ANI that he would stand by the initial investigation which they had done.

"I will comment after detailed order, but I stand by initial investigation which we had done," he added.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court set aside the Bombay High Court earlier order and granted bail to Purohit.

A bench of Justices R.K. Agrawal and A.M. Sapre passed the order on the plea.

Earlier on August 17, the apex court reserved its order on the bail plea of Lieutenant Colonel Purohit.

Senior lawyer, Harish Salve, appearing for Lieutenant Colonel Purohit told the court that he did not want to be discharged from the case at present, but for the interest of justice, wanted an interim bail.

Salve told the apex court that Lieutenant Colonel Purohit was allegedly caught in the political crossfire and was falsely implicated in the case.

Opposing Lieutenant Colonel Purohit's bail plea, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) argued that the Bombay High court order should be upheld by the apex court.

Lieutenant 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 to the top court.

Lieutenant Colonel Purohit, a former military intelligence officer, is one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, along with Sadhvi Pragya and others.

The 2008 Malegaon serial blasts claimed four lives and left nearly 79 injured.