Terror accused Purohit turns hostile, denies meeting Aseemanand

News Network
February 15, 2018

Hyderabad, Feb 15: Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Rao Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon terror attack case and a National Investigation Agency (NIA) witness in the 2007 Makkah Masjid terror attack case, turned hostile on Wednesday.

Purohit appeared before the fourth additional metropolitan sessions judge-cum-special court for NIA cases amid tight army security. He was cross-examined by the NIA counsel, before the prosecution declared him a "hostile witness".

While deposing before the court, he denied knowledge of the Makkah Masjid blast or any investigating agency recording his statement as a witness in the case. The reinstated officer denied meeting Swami Aseemanand alias Nabakumar Sarkar, the prime accused in the Makkah Masjid blast case, and spoke about Sunil Joshi, who was responsible for the bomb blast at Ajmer Dargah.

Around 1.25pm on May 18, 2007, a bomb blast on the Makkah Masjid premises during Friday prayers had killed nine people and wounded 58.

Prior to handing over the investigation of the Makkah Masjid blast case to NIA in 2007, the CBI, which had filed a chargesheet against the arrested culprits, had cited Purohit as prosecution witness number 106 and said he would prove that Aseemanand had called him on December 29, 2007 and told him that Sunil Joshi was murdered and was "apna banda". NIA had abated the action against Sunil Joshi, since he had died.

Purohit, deposing before the court, said he had served in the counter-intelligence cell of the Indian Army and met several people, but did not have any knowledge about the accused allegedly involved in the Makkah Masjid blast case.

The officer also disowned the 'Abhinav Bharat Trust' and told the court that he never founded it. Purohit, however, said he knew Ajay Rahirkar and Kulkarni, accused in the Malegaon-II bomb blast case.

He told the court that his stand before the Supreme Court was without any prior inquiry he was detained in jail for nine years. In August 2017, the SC had granted Purohit bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
June 2,2020

Lucknow, Jun 2: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday said protests in the US after the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, is a clear message to the world that a common man's life has value.

She said this is also guaranteed by the India Constitution, but the governments don't follow it, resulting in the current plight of migrants workers.

Floyd, a 46-year-old restaurant worker from Houston, died in Minneapolis on Monday after a white police officer pinned him to the ground. Video footage showed the officer kneeling on Floyd's neck as he gasped for breath, sparking widespread protests across the US.

"Floyd's killing by police and the 'Black lives matter' agitation in the US have given a clear message to the world that a common man's life has value and it should not be taken for granted," Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi.

"India's constitution guarantees independence, security, self-respect and pride and governments should give special attention to it. If it was followed, crores of migrants labourers would not have to witness such bad days," she added.

She also demanded better coordination between states to check the spread of coronavirus and said Centre should intervene.

"While coronavirus patients are rising, there is lack of coordination between states and with the Centre, and allegation and counter-allegations are going on and sealing of state borders is unjustified and it is weakening the fight against the virus.  The Centre should intervene," she said in a separate tweet.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 16,2020

Kochi, Apr 16: As many as 268 British citizens stranded in Kerala due to the nationwide lockdown were airlifted by British Airways on Wednesday from Thiruvananthapuram and Cochin International Airports.

The flight took off from Thiruvananthapuram to London's Heathrow Airport with 110 passengers at 7.30 pm. Later, 158 more passengers boarded the flight from Cochin airport at 10.07 pm.
A medical team, including four doctors, screened the passengers at the Thiruvananthapuram airport before they boarded the flight.

Earlier this month, the first charter flight from India reached London's Stansted with 317 British nationals on board from Goa.

The British government had earlier announced the operation of 19 chartered flights to evacuate its nationals who are stranded in India amid travel restrictions owing to the coronavirus crisis.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 2,2020

Lucknow, Jul 2: After a video showing health workers allegedly tossing bodies of coronavirus victims in a large pit in Karnataka, BSP President Mayawati on Wednesday stated that the incident is the "height of cruelty and insult to humanity".
The former UP Chief Minister demanded that the guilty must be punished.

"The tragedy that the bodies of COVID-19 victims being thrown into trenches in Ballari, Karnataka is the height of cruelty and an insult to humanity. Though incidents related to inhuman cruelty with corona patients are rampant but guilty of Ballari must be punished by the state government," Mayawati said in a tweet.

Also, in another tweet, she asked the Central government to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

"In order to check ignominy of starvation on account of long unprecedented hardship & unemployment due to coronavirus and the subsequent nationwide lockdown, the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna must continue not till November but till the end of the pandemic, this is the demand of BSP," she tweeted. 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.