Acquitted in Malegaon blast case, Lt Col Purohit's emotional outburst: 'I'm a soldier who loves this country'

Lt Colonel Purohit has been acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blast case after the court found no concrete evidence against him. (File photo/PTI)

An NIA special court on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, in the 2008 Malegaon blasts in one of the country's longest-running terror cases.

The court acquitted the seven accused saying that the prosecution failed to establish the allegations against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

Reacting to his acquittal, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit said, "I am a soldier who loves this country immensely. The country must always remain supreme and its foundations strong."

“I am a victim of mentally ill and sick people," Purohit made an emotional statement outside the courtroom, referring to what he described as a politically motivated targeting of armed forces personnel. “Some people misused their authority, and we had to endure it," he said, News18 reported.

Addressing the judge in the NIA Court, Lt Colonel Purohit said, “I thank you for giving me a chance to serve my nation and my organisation with the same conviction which I was doing before me being framed in this matter. I don’t blame any organisation for all this. Organisations like investigating agencies are not wrong, but people inside the organisations are the ones who have done wrong . I thank you for restoring the faith of the common man in the system again…"

Colonel Purohit was arrested for allegedly masterminding the blasts in 2008 and spent nearly nine years in jail before being granted bail in 2017. It was alleged that Lt Col Prasad Purohit had sourced RDX from Jammu and Kashmir and assembled the bomb at his residence.