Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, an accused in 2008 Malegaon blast case, today walked out of jail after spending nearly nine years behind bars.
Lt Col Purohit was driven out of the prison in a car at around 10.45 am. A team of Military Police and Quick Response Team of the Army escorted Purohit out of the jail.
The Supreme Court had granted bail to Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad in the 2008 Malegaon blast case on Monday.
On Tuesday, Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit said he wanted to rejoin the Army as soon as possible.
“I want to wear my uniform. It is outermost layer of my skin. I am wedded to it. I am very happy to get back into the service of the best organisation in the country if not the world, the Indian army,” he told reporters outside a sessions court here.
“I have two families—the Army and my family which includes my wife, my two sons, sister and mother. I cannot wait to return to them,” he said.
The Army didn’t “let me down”, said Purohit.
“It’s been the tradition and ethos of the Army not to let down its men,” he said, adding, “I never even once felt that I was out of the Army.”
He praised his wife for helping him in his legal fight. Asked if he will seek action against the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad for allegedly “planting (explosive) RDX on him”, Purohit said he was part of an institution, and if those claims were true, his “seniors” (in the Army) will deal with the matter.
“I am too small a fry to fight this,” he said. Asked if he blamed anybody for his plight, the officer said no one was to blame but his “destiny”.
“The Army is the only institution in the country which is not shaken by the ripples of what is happening in the society,” he said.
The apex court had yesterday granted bail to Purohit, who has been in jail for almost nine years for his alleged role in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Six people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nashik district of north Maharashtra.
The apex court said there were “material contradictions” in the charge sheets filed by the ATS and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which were required to be tested at the time of trial.
(With PTI inputs)
