The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Bombay High Court to decide expeditiously the plea of Lt Col Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, regarding the prior sanction for his prosecution.
Purohit had said that the sanction granted by the government to prosecute him in the case, was wrong in law.
A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Justice Vikram Nath asked the High Court to decide the plea of Purohit pending already for quashing the sanction for his prosecution in the case.
"The writ petition filed by the petitioner bearing Writ Petition is pending consideration before the High Court wherein the petitioner has sought quashing of the sanction under Section 197(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, we deem it appropriate to request the High Court to take up the said writ petition and decide the same expeditiously in accordance with the law. The writ petition is disposed of in above terms," the bench in its order stated.
Purohit had moved the High Court with his plea challenging the validity of the sanction granted by the government to prosecute him under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the case.
A prior sanction for Purohit's prosecution was required since he was a serving Army officer at the time.
Earlier, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court had dismissed his plea to discharge him from the case.
In the 2008 Malegaon blast case, six people were killed and over 100 injured after an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon in north Maharashtra, about 200 kilometres from Mumbai. All the seven accused in the case are currently out on bail.
BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahilkar and Sudhakar Chaturvedi are the other accused in the case.
( With inputs from ANI )
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