Ready to give CoI records, Army tells court

The Army on Monday informed a special court that it is ready to re-consider Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit’s application seeking untruncated copies of documents related to court of inquiry in connection with the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. The Army, on request of Lt Col Purohit, had given him truncated copies of these documents, but the army man moved another application before the court and said he needs untruncated copies in order to prove his innocence.

The ATS had arrested Lt Col Purohit for arranging military ammunition for carrying out the blasts in Malegaon in 2008, but the officer has claimed that he was under a secret mission to get information on terrorist activities in India.

The Army had conducted a court of inquiry against Lt Col Purohit and to prove his claim the officer had moved an application before the special MCOCA court in February seeking a direction to the Army to furnish documents related to his court of inquiry so that he could use them for his defence in the trial. On this application, the Army had given truncated copies to him.

Not satisfied with the documents, Lt Col Purohit again moved the court in March and requested the court to direct the Army to provide him untruncated copy of records. Though so far the Army has not agreed to give him untruncated copy of records, it, however, has told the court that they can consider his application if he gives an undertaking of not sharing details with anybody because the copy contains certain sensitive information related to national security.

They also told the court that if needed they could give untruncated copy of records to the court in a sealed condition for the perusal of the court only. The court is likely to hear this application on Monday.