2008 Malegaon blast case: SC turns down Lt Colonel Purohit's plea seeking SIT probe into his abduction, torture

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain the plea of  Lt Col Shrikant Purohit for SIT probe into his alleged abduction, torture in 2008 Malegaon blast case. 

The three-bench-judge -- Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and K M Joseph -- headed by Justice Gogoi refused to hear the plea saying that the matter is in the trial court and in such a situation the apex court cannot interfere. 

The bench, however, granted Purohit the liberty to raise his contentions before the trial court and said it is not expressing any opinion on his petition. "Why should we interfere at this stage? It may impact the trial," the bench said.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Purohit, told the bench that the issue raised by Purohit in his plea has to be looked into. Since the NIA is seized of the matter, the agency can look into it, Salve said.

The bench, however, asked him to raise the issue before the trial court. Purohit is currently out on bail. It was granted by the apex court in 2017.

In the previous hearing, Justice UU Lalit had recused himself from the hearing on the plea of ​​Purohit. Earlier, Purohit had filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. 

The Bombay High Court had rejected the petition of Colonel Purohit and Samir Kulkarni in the matter.

Then the Supreme Court had issued notices to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Maharashtra government seeking reply within four weeks