On Tuesday, the NIA said there was no proof against Lt Col Prasad Purohit in the Samjhauta blast case but investigation against him is underway in connection with the Malegaon blast case.
There is no proof against him in Samjhauta blast case. He was never an accused. I wonder why his name is being linked to Samjhauta blast case.Sharad Kumar, Director General, NIA to PTI
He said Purohit has been chargesheeted by ATS Mumbai in Malegaon blasts in 2008 and NIA was carrying out further investigations in the matter. The NIA has filed a chargesheet against eight people in connection with the Samjhauta blast case which includes Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Asimanand, Late Sunil Joshi alias Sunilji, Ramchandra Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange (both absconding), Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan, Amit and Rajender Choudhary.
The case pertains to the criminal conspiracy which resulted in bomb blasts in the Attari Express (Samjhauta) train near Panipat, Haryana on 18 February 2007.
This blast and the consequent fire in the train coaches resulted in the loss of 68 lives and injuries to 12 train passengers including women and children travelling in the train.
The other case, in which Purohit is an accused, pertains to bombing in Malegaon area of Maharashtra on 29 September 2008. A blast rocked the area in which four people were killed while several others injured. The probe was initially conducted by the Maharashtra ATS and later handed over to the NIA.
Besides Purohit, Pragya Singh Thakur, Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Ramesh Upadhya, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay, Rakesh Dhawade, Jagdish Mhatre, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Pravin Takalki have been arrested.
Ramaji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, who are accused but absconding, have also been chargesheeted.
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