The Supreme Court today granted bail to Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
He has spent nine years behind bars after being arrested in 2008. He told the SC that he was acting as army mole and was not involved in terrorist activity.
During a hearing last week, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Purohit, said he has been in jail for the past nine years but charges have still not been framed against him.
The top court had on May 5 sought a response from the NIA and the Maharashtra government on the plea of Purohit seeking bail.
Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, in Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in the Nasik district of northern Maharashtra.
The 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because of a sizeable Muslim population there. It had named Pragya Thakur, Purohit and co-accused, Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators.
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