Prasad Purohit promoted as Brigadier after acquittal in 2008 Malegaon blasts case

Mumbai: Less than a year after Indian Army officer Prasad Purohit—who was acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case—has been cleared for promotion as a Brigadier.

This development brings closure to a nearly two-decade-long legal and professional struggle for the 54-year-old officer.

The Navratri-eve blast coinciding with the month of Ramzan just two days before Eid on 29 September 2008, claimed the lives of six persons and injured 101 others at Malegaon in Nashik district of Maharashtra - nearly 300 kms away from Mumbai.

On 31 July, 2025, NIA Court’s Special Judge Abhay Lahoti — for “lack of evidence” — has acquitted all the seven accused in the case including Purohit.

On 27 September, 2025, Purohit was promoted to the rank of Colonel.

After his acquittal, Purohit had moved the Armed Forces Tribunal, which had stayed his retirement due on 31 March.

It may be recalled on September 21 August, 2017, the Supreme Court granted bail to Col Purohit after which he was attached to the Southern Command’s Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa (MG&G) Area.

After his acquittal, Col Purohit said: “The nation is everything…I thank you for giving me a chance to serve my nation and my organisation with the same conviction which I was doing before me being framed in this matter. I thank all my friends, my colleagues.”

After his acquittal when Col Purohit and his wife Aparna, reached Law College Road home in Pune, he was granted a grand welcome, after which he said: "This is where I was born and brought up... If you see some good qualities in me, it is because of the culture of this society, which has taught me. It is because of the decision of the honourable court that I am here. I am overwhelmed by the welcome I have received, and there is nothing unnatural in it... It all depends on destiny, and I am a forward-looking person…I am grateful”.

In the verdict, Judge Lahoti rejected the Hindu terror angle. “No religion can advocate violence. The court cannot convict anyone merely on perception and moral evidence; there must be cogent evidence…Upon comprehensive evaluation, the prosecution has failed to bring any cogent evidence and the evidence is riddled with inconsistencies. Prosecution proved that a blast occurred in Malegaon but failed to prove that bomb was placed in that motorcycle,” the judge had noted.

Son of a bank officer, the Pune-born Col Purohit hails from a Maharashtrian-Brahmin family completed his education from Abhinav School on Law College Road and graduated from Garware College.

He was selected for the Officers’ Training Academy in Chennai and after passing out, he was commissioned into Maratha Light Infantry in 1994.

Between 2002-2005, he served in the counter-terrorism operations unit in Jammu and Kashmir and later shifted to Military Intelligence and posted in Nashik.

At the time of his arrest, he was studying Arabic at the Army Education Centre in Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh.