In Malegaon blast case, accused Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit files plea for in-camera trial

The accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, Lt. Colonel Prasad Purohit on Tuesday filed an application before a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai requesting the ongoing trial to be held in-camera. He also claimed that the media was conducting discussions and debates on the trial proceeds which was prohibited in 2019 by the special court.

Purohit, in his application, said that the case should remain confined to the courtroom and "should not be allowed to be hijacked by opinion-makers and anti-national opportunists."

The NIA had filed a similar application before the special court in 2019 asking for trial proceedings to be held in-camera, and for media to be prohibited from reporting. Journalists had opposed it. The application was rejected but the court had imposed a few restrictions on the media. It had said that the media should not reveal witnesses' identity and not conduct interviews, discussions or debates of any kind in the case.

Purohit said that the orders passed by the court in 2019 were being violated by the press and hence, "the permission given to the media in the restricted form may please be withdrawn completely and no presence of media be allowed in the courtroom during the proceedings."

Meanwhile, Sameer Kulkarni, another accused in the case, opposed Purohit's application. The NIA and other accused persons have been asked to file replies to Purohit's application by NIA. The application would be heard on a later date, the court said.

Currently, the NIA court is conducting a day-to-day trial in the Malegaon blast case. Till now, 16 witnesses have turned hostile.

2008 Malegaon blast

Half a dozen people were killed and more than 100 others were wounded when an explosive strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Nashik's Malegaon on September 29, 2008. Apart from Purohit and Kulkarni, BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and three others are facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code on a charge of committing terror activities and criminal conspiracy.

The accused in this case - Lt. Col. Purohit, BJP MP Pragya Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahikar, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sudhakar Chaturvedi have been booked under Sections 16 (committing the terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA. Sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC. Relevant provisions of the Explosive Substances Act have also been invoked in the FIR.

Image: PTI, Representative