Thread by @barandbench

#BombayHighCourt will shortly begin hearing the plea filed by Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit for quashing criminal proceedings instituted against him, accusing him for his alleged involvement in the Malegaon blast case.

#MalegaonBlastCase

@NIA_India

Hearing begins.

Court asks if Sr Adv Mukul Rohatgi will be appearing.

Adv Neela Gokhale appearing for Purohit submits that an email was sent from the interveners to Rohatgi pointing out that he had appeared for NIA in a PIL when he was Attorney General of India.

Gokhale pointed out that due to that email Rohatgi will not appear in the matter today.

Gokhale begins her submissions.

Gokhale submits that the act committed by Purohit was in discharge of his duties.

Gokhale: Section 197(2) of the CrPC states no court shall take cognizance of any offence to have been committed by any member of the Armed Forces while acting in discharge of his duties without previous sanction of the Central Government.

Gokhale: I will state the facts of the case from the documents of the prosecution. These are not even mine.

She reads from the documents.

Gokhale: I am pointing out from these documents that I was discharging my duty, infiltrating in the groups and reporting to my superiors for protecting national security.

Gokhale pointed out documents which lauded Purohit for his work as a armed officer.

Court: When was he arrested?

Gokhale: On November 5, 2008. He was granted bail in 2015.

Gokhale submits that when the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested him, they had filed a chargesheet, which was challenged. Thereafter, when the NIA took over, they filed a new chargesheet.

Gokhale: One of the charges of ATS was that Purohit carried RDX from Kashmir to Pune. This has been dropped fortunately.

The court has taken a short break.

Bench re-assembles.

Court asks if Sr Adv BA Desai will make any submissions and for how long.

Desai: I will argue but I do not have some exhibits in the petition.

Court: Why we are asking is from next week, this division bench may change.

Court: So we may not be able to keep this part-heard. So if you both finish your submissions today then it is fine.

Court asks ASG Anil Singh appearing for NIA on what he has to say on this.

Court: We do not know how long Mr. Desai says.

Gokhale: Milords, this is what happens, which is why I was opposing the intervention application.

Court: Mr. Singh something needs to be done of this. We may have to limit arguments for final hearing to maybe 30-35 minutes and for admission 10-15 minutes.

Court asks Mr. Desai how long will he take. There is some issue in his audio connection.

Mr. Desai tries to make his submissions, but there is internet connectivity issue.

Court asks associate to call Desai on his mobile to know how long will his arguments go on for.

Court: Ms. Gokhale we do not think we can continue hearing this matter through VC. There are confidential documents involved and internet connectivity issues.

So we will fix it in sometime in end of January or first week of February.

Gokhale: I will only request for a fixed time and day.

Court: Ok, then we will keep it on February 2 @ 2.30.

Gokhale asks if it is physical or virtual hearing?

Justice Shinde: Personally, I want physical hearing. So it will be physical hearing.

Justice Shinde: We had a party in person arguing before us on VC. They were using abuses and saying so many things against the high court. We have tolerance, but not so much also.

Hearing concludes.

Matter is posted on February 2, 2021.