Army officers received Lt Col Purohit at Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai from where he was taken to Army unit in Colaba.

Edited by Shashank Shantanu

Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, was released from the jail today. Lt Col Purohit, who spent almost 9 years in jail, was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on August 22.

Army officers received Lt Col Purohit at Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai from where he was taken to Army unit in Colaba.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Lt Col Purohit’s suspension order would be revoked once he reaches the Army unit. He will be then handed over a posting order.

Lt Col Purohit would then finally move to his house in Pune.

“I am very happy now. I want to return to my two families – my service and my home. My younger son is 12 years old and wants to join the army like me,” Lt Col Purohit said on Tuesday.

“I blame no one but my destiny,” he added when asked who he blames for his nearly 9 year stay in jail.

Purohit has been in jail for almost nine years for his alleged role in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Six people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a communally sensitive textile town in Nashik district of north Maharashtra.

Purohit was accused of providing RDX for the bomb that killed seven persons Muslim-majority town of Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

He was accused of being part of Hindu right-wing group Abhinav Bharat.

However, Purohit, during the trial, claimed that he was there to spy on the group members and had kept his seniors in the loop on all developments.

The suspended Army officer had challenged the April 25 Bombay High Court order that granted bail to co-accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur but rejected his bail plea.