Officer was not new to ATS

When Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra Police, he was not someone new or faceless to some of the officers.

In fact, as a Military Intelligence (MI) officer, Col Purohit used to share intelligence with ATS top brass and also gave lessons to some budding sleuths.

Col Purohit was attached to the Army Education Corps Training College and Centre in Panchmarhi when he was arrested on November 5, 2008, by the ATS – then led by IPS officer Hemant Karkare, who laid down his life during the 26/11 attacks.

Born in Pune to a bank employee, Col Purohit studied in Abhinav Vidyalaya and Garware College before joining the Short Service Commission. He was trained at the Officers’ Training Academy in Chennai. In 1994, he was commissioned into the Maratha Light Infantry.

The soft-spoken army man’s first posting was in Assam and then in Manipur, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Pune, Jammu and Kashmir, Devlali in Nashik and in Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh.

In Jammu and Kashmir, Col Purohit was posted in the Kupwara, Anantnag and Uri, where he was tasked with gathering intelligence between 2002 and 2005.

During his postings in Maharashtra, he is said to have come in contact with several right-wing activists and groups, including Abhinav Bharat - founded by Himani Savarkar.

Incidentally, Himani, who passed away in 2015, was the daughter of Gopal Godse. She was the niece of Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, and a daughter-in-law of Narayan Savarkar, the younger brother of Hindu nationalist Vinayak Savarkar.

Col Purohit is said to have taken part in the conspiracy meetings and supplying RDX to the group of people involved in the Malegaon blast of 2008. When he was arrested, he was the first army officer to face charges of terrorism.

Col Purohit had maintained that he had infiltrated into Abhinav Bharat to gather information – and had kept his superiors in the loop.

DH News Service