Lt Col Purohit walks out of jail

A smiling and beaming Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Navratri-eve blast at Malegaon, walked out of jail on bail on Wednesday, and straightaway reported to the Indian Army.

A Military Intelligence (MI) officer, Lt Col Purohit, who is in his late forties, had been in jail for the past nine years, and is the first serving Army officer to be arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra police. He was suspended from service after his arrest.

 At 10.45 am, he came out of the Taloja Central Jail in Raigad district and by 1200 noon reported to the Colaba Military Station in south Mumbai, a distance of nearly 60 km.

 On Monday, the Supreme Court had granted him bail and on Tuesday he completed the bail formalities at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court located in the Mumbai Sessions Court.

 Since Tuesday evening, the security arrangements outside the prison was beefed up in the wake of the impending release of the officer.

However, on Wednesday, the battery of journalists were taken by surprise when a couple of gypsies, including one of the Military Police, one sedan and two trucks entered the high security jail premises.

The relatives of the undertrials outside the jail too were surprised at the arrangements. The Maharashtra police and the Indian Army did not want to take any chances as far as the security was concerned due to perceived threat.

DH News Service